Quin’s Rainbow Vale - Orcs Banned in DC (569 Points)

Rank & File Month 1

Not long ago, when things were slow

We all got by with what we know

The end is near, hearts filled with fear

Don't want to listen to what they hear

And so it's now we choose to fight

To stick up for our bloody right

The right to ring, the right to dance

The right is ours, we'll take the chance

At peace together, apiece apart

A piece of wisdom from our hearts

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    “Huh?” An enormous voice bellows out in the night. The rattling of a shoddy wooden frame awakens the giant Bilidum. Frustrated, he lunges from inside his cave to confront the rabble disturbing him, “Wot ar’ you lot doin’ wit’ dat manscrampler at dis time o’ night?” “Ay we’ goin’ ta raid som pointy ears! Wonna ‘elp?” a much smaller voice calls back. “I’ll git my beatin stik!” Bilidum roars excitedly. The mosh of orcs trod forward, pushing their war machine as their newly recruited giant runs to catch up with them, his giant footsteps echo through the forests and arrows begin to fly from the trees into the crowd. Quickly the gang gets to work, loading rocks into the trebuchet and flying arrows while Bilidum starts knocking over trees. A dozen elves are decimated and the survivors begin to retreat, seeking reinforcements in a nearby fortress. Before they are able to make it to the safety of the fortress the frenzied mob catches up to them, where they are demolished by the flailing orcs and crushed by their enormous spiked wheels. 

    Inside the elven keep, up in the trees above the carnage below, the guards hear a voice.

And then many voices, chanting in unison,

“We got the PMA!

We got that attitude!

Don’t care what you might say!

We got that attitude!”

Rocks begin to crash through the wooden walls of the small elven fortress. Before the elves could notch a single arrow, the structure in the trees collapses and the elves are slaughtered. Another evil cleansed from these woods.

  It’s been a busy start to the year for me but I managed to complete this Ral Partha Orc/Goblin War Machine sculpted by Tom Meier as well as a unit of savage orc archers from the ORC2 range and my first Giant for the year. This lot will makeup almost the entirety of my armies ballistics, only withholding the boar archers that accompany the orc chieftain.

Savage Orc Archers, from the ORC2 range.

ORC2 Savage Orc Archers w/ Clubs

Savage Orc Archers, probably the most common sculpt of the range.

These two are C15 Orc Villagers “Archer” & ”Shaman”

Savage Orc Standard Bearer, perhaps carrying a visage of the elven kingdom in ruins.

Level 5 Savage Orc Hero

Another group shot, this one with the backside of the banner

Man Mangler from the Front

Man Mangler from the Side

His arm fell off moments before our photo shoot, I will likely have to pin it back on to fix the break, as it’s its a pretty heavy bit.

-15 savage orcs w/ hand weapons, shields & bows 7.5 points each (112.5)

-Standard Bearer with shield, hand weapon & bow (14.5)

-Level 5 orc shaman (63)

-Level 5 savage orc hero with hand weapon, shield & bow (36)

-Orc Manmangler (93)

-Ral Partha Hill Giant Billidum (250)

Total For January (569)

Until next time,

From the sewers.of.estark

From SeanS - Undead Army of Zazad the Eternal (201pts)

Hi All,

As usual I somehow managed to not manage my time very well and come in way too close to the deadline. A few things came up at the end of the month that I didn't anticipate and it threw me off.

Any way we have a unit of 5 Death Riders - shield, hand weapon - 105 points

Skull Chucker  with 3 man crew - 60 points

3 of the 20 skeleton warriors - shield, hand weapon, spear - 36 points. As you can see the one figure is the champion guy. I put him in because I had the parts to make him from the command pack.

I think overall they look ok. The riders and artillery were black under coat and brushed up with a bone triad. The skeleton spearmen were done with a white undercoat, a mix of yellow and brown ink and then brushed up with a bone triad. I think I like them better. As always I covered everything in my grunge wash to help tone things down.

I'll have to leave the semi shiny "matte" varnish for now and finish the base flocking later.

I'll try to be ahead of the game for February.

Dave's Creepy Carrion and Catapult (209 pts)

January has come and gone and the challenge is off to a great start! This is the most exciting part of the competition for me as I get to see all the armies for the first time (although the satisfaction of seeing them all finished by the end is also hard to beat). For my first month entry, I decided to start with some of my favorite regiments from the 1994 Undead army book. I feel that these units really demonstrate some of the core themes of the Undead of the Old World—unholy vigor and terror! Let's take a look...

That's it! Just eight individual models, including a scenic pile of skulls. Undead are enormously expensive point-wise and tend to field rather small armies. This will be a theme as we go along... Anyway, let's look at the breakdown:

Screaming Skull Catapult ~ 74 pts

3x Carrion ~ 135 pts

The Screaming Skull Catapult is a terrifying weapon of the Undead. Not only is it as powerful as a regular stone thrower (providing the Undead army with much needed long range firepower and a handy way to quickly dispose of heavily armored knights), but any regiment that takes even a single casualty must pass an immediate Panic test or become broken and flee. Right on the first turn, you can make a regiment run right off the board from their deployment zone! With 48" range, an artillery template, Strength 7 hits, no save and D3 wounds per hit, the Screaming Skull Catapult is a steal at a mere 74 pts.

The next regiment is another favorite of mine: the dreaded Carrion. These are the rotting corpses of great eagles and other gigantic birds of prey that once nested in the highest ranges of the Worlds Edge Mountains. The black magic of Chaos ravaged these inhospitable regions, warping the creatures that dwelt there and twisting them into these mockeries of once noble beasts. Like the Screaming Skull Catapult, Carrion play a vital role in the Undead army, making up for another area that the shambling hordes lack: speed. Carrion can fly (as well as their tattered, rotting wings can carry them) and thus get around the special rule that prohibits Undead from marching. Their effective 24" movement thus makes them the fastest regiment in the army.

  

The best use of this regiment, in my opinion, is to employ them as war machine hunters. On the first turn of the game, if they cannot reach their prey with regular flight, the Carrion can fly high and swoop down on them in the following turn. Once in combat, they have a terrific chance of devouring the war machine's crew whole or at the very least driving them away (and perhaps off the table) thanks to their ability to cause fear. With 3 Attacks on their profile and the potential to make additional attacks for every wound dealt (as the Carrion's creepy little spirit rider feeds upon the death and carnage), a small handful of Carrion can deal a lot of damage to unarmored war machine crew. You can even field them in packs of three, allowing you to have multiple murders of Carrion circling over the battlefield.

These models were a delight to paint, just bursting with character and attitude. Nothing that has been made since can even hold a candle up to these classic Undead, in my humble opinion. Now that they are finished, I am very excited to crack on with the rest of the army!