Caesar

It’s the summertime and the weather is fine, and I’ve been out in the garden knocking back wine…

Time to step away from the Blood Angels for a bit – I’ve lost confidence in my eye for detail (nothing to do with ay criticism, by the way – all the comments I’ve had have been positive, in fact far more positive than I deserve), and I think I need to do a fair bit of freehand practice to get my skills up to snuff before having another go at my command figures. So it makes sense to go to a smaller scale, right?

Well… yeah, actually. See, the issue I had with the BAs was with the smooth surfaces and details like the campaign badges and banners (which also highlighted the downsides to painting with housepaints rather than model paints in some instances… X-D) . The details that are picked out for you on the sculpts – pipes, aquilas etc – I wasn’t too bad with. And with my Orcs, there’s plenty of those. This lets washes and drybrushing take care of the heavy lifting – plus any mistakes you can hide within a regiment of 30, right?

So here we are – a regiment of 30 Black Orcs (Orcs of Colour?):

These lads are the heavy hitters, the elite of the orc infantry, and 30 of them is a big solid linebreaker whether you’re playing Warhammer Fantasy, Kings Of War or Hyperian Wars

Paint scheme was basically the same as the other ladz, but a black wash dulled down the skin tones.

I gave myself a hand by priming these white and then prewashing with thinned Smokey Ink to get to the parts other painting layers can’t reach….

Warchief Gazhrag The Bloody leads his army

Fancy seeing this lot coming at you?

So that’s Gazh the Warchief, a regiment of 16 Archers, 2 regiments of 30 Orcs each, a regiment of 25 Savage Orcs and now the Black Orcs – one more regiment to go and then we’re on to the Shamans, and I’ve got a few ideas for support units…

And then, to battle!

Having already kicked the arse of Ratticus McStilton and his Virum Nascii, da boyz fancied a taste of ‘oomie flesh….

Lt. Carruthers’ Sky Marine platoon deploys to the left, with support from an Artificial, Gazhrag’s boyz to the right. The objective is the sacred stones in the middle of the ruined temple… wonder what the Orc Warlord might be wanting with all these stones?

Sky Marines deploy forward with command section and mortar anchored on the low hill in the centre

No. 3 Squad takes casualties from surprisingly effective Orc archery

Nos. 1 & 2 squads hold the hill overlooking the temple, but it looks like they’re getting company soon

Black Orcs crash into the Sky Marines on the hill

Sky Marines retreat in good order despite taking savage losses, but the Orc regiment following the Black Orcs catch them in the open

Sky Marines fight bravely, but 30 Orcs are 30 Orcs

Command section let fly with rifles and mortar, Jim running down all his Command Points to hammer these ladz before they massacre his troops up close and personal. The “1” you can see is the regiment failing it’s morale check – being within 12cm of unsuppressed enemy troops they are captured (or cut down by quickfire .303 rounds and bayonets)

Next turn Jim won the initiative and turned the attention of the command section onto the Black Orcs – concentrated casualties in the regiment’s rear quickly caused them to become suppressed and surrender too!

However, the command section can’t face two ways at once and the second prong of the Orc attack strikes

Two survivors are all that’s left of No. 3 squad!

Surviving Sky Marines consolidate on the low hill for a last stand

But to no avail, as the Orcs crash into them from both sides!

“Those creatures are tremendous in stature!”

“Wait until you see the reds of their eyes, lads”

And so Gazhrag The Bloody scored another victory, albeit having lost half his archers, his elite Black Orcs and a regiment of regular Orcs in the process… and we ironed out a few more kinks in the Hyperian Wars ruleset, hopefully bringing the publication date to three days before the heat death of the universe.

Stay thrifty out there – Jim’s got something he’s really excited to tell you all about… 😉

You know what, I think I might have a problem.

So, as a distraction from my 1991 Blood Angels tribute act – and why I might need one of those is a matter for a different discussion – I suddenly found myself with a bit of a yen for a bit of rank & file, sword-n-sorcery stuff. Jim and I are both familiar with the excellent Caesar 1/72 fantasy stuff, having used their Orcs as the basis for Da Skooderia – not to mention having painted about a billion of their Ratmen for ourAnd Still They Come.. Hairy Japanese Bastards Pt. 3,147,923 totally-not-Skaven army.

So it was that a harmless bit of window shopping – initially with the idea of a horde of easily painted skeletons – led to the discovery of an online hobby outlet (forgotten which one, sorry), which although out of Undead, did have a load of their Orcs in stock. Even better – on sale. 5 boxes of figures, sans the boxes themselves – 34 figures a box, so that’s 170 altogether, £25 the lot. Done.

I’ve started to organise them for Age Of Fantasy from One Page Rules, but these should do nicely for WHFB, Kings Of War and of course Hyperian Wars, and first up is this 16 string unit of archers (15 from this order, supplemented by a leftover from Da Skooderia) – based on 20mm single corrugated card squares (chopped from the very box these lads came in, no less).

Primed white and painted using mostly Vallejo Goblin Green for the skin, Hot Orange for the red and Filthy Brown, and a couple of tan/ brown craft paints. Washed with Army Painter Green Tone, Vallejo Brown, Smokey, Red and Black inks and a very light bone drybrush, based in a mixture of Garage Floor Dust (TM) and Jarvis flock drizzled on. So, pics:

The two poses used in the regiment – 15 of the guys on the left, only one of the right hand chap, so he gets to be in charge

Can’t see these guys making a huge contribution, as whatever the system, Orcs aren’t known for marksmanship, but still, they look nice from two feet away.. although don’t look too closely at the eyes and teeth!

Right, 16 down, 155 to go – the addiction clearly incurable, the addict prepares another fix…

Stay thrifty and safe out there and see you soon for some battle reports (hopefully..)

Another Hole In The Head Pt. 5 (And A Battle Report!)

Another Hole In The Head – 20mm Fantasy Orcs