WAAAGHHH Wisconsin! My Green Bay Pack-Orcs Blood Bowl Team

Since my last post, many moons ago I have been having more fun than I've ever had with miniatures converting and painting an Orc Blood Bowl team. As I've said before I have become hooked on Blood Bowl, devouring every podcast, forum post, and article on the game that I can find. I've printed and bound a copy of the living rulebook, ordered a pitch on ebay, and have spent every second of my hobby time working on my Green Bay Packer themed Orc team. I even bought the Blood Bowl Xbox game to help me nail down the basics before I get into the GW league (I know this isn't the version to be playing but I'm on a mac computer, and for only $15 I've already gotten more than my money's worth).

I'm not a die-hard sports fan by any means, but having hailed from Wisconsin I'm a huge Packer fan, it comes with the territory. I knew that I wanted to do something bright and sporty for my first blood bowl team as everything that I've painted in the past has been very dark and gritty. I wanted yellow armored Orcs, and after thinking about yellow armor and green skin I couldn't help but make them modeled after my beloved Packers. This way I'd be able to throw in some really characterful references to the franchise while making the connections abstract enough to still make the team a viable fantasy-world sports team.

This is my first Blitzer. The green lines on the helmet and pants need one more coat, but I'm really happy with the colors overall.

If you look closely at his right foot in this shot you can see the cleats that I added to the bottom of his shoe. I had a metric ton of chaos spiky vehicle bits and got the long points by cutting off the very tips of the spikes.

This is my 2nd Blitzer, and favorite model that I've converted thus far. I used thin strips of plasticard across the helmets to make the old school facemasks.

This is my first Lineman, I've made two but with the roster I'm considering now may only need one.

He's a sneaky git, pulling a hidden blade from beneath his shoulder pad for some fouling action. I further represented this by making him number 75 after the Green Bay offensive lineman, Bulaga, who leads the team with his stupid false-start/offsides/holding fouls.

Here's a WIP of my first Black Orc Blocker. I plan to max out on 4 of these boyz as soon as possible.

Evan is currently a little more than half-way through converting his Chaos team and they're looking really great. This Friday will be our first chance to get an actual game in at the Battle Bunker during their specialist games friday.

Until then, I've got to finish painting these, as well as the remaining 8 or so players on my roster, convert a coach (an Orky Vince Lombardi, of course), a few fans, and decide on a team name. The first thing that came to me was Da Greenskin Bashaz, but I also really like Da Cheez 'Eadz. Let me know what you guys think.

More on the Ordo Immortalis

So here is where I got the idea from for the armour, these were done by Paitor Angelica on DakkaDakka, and as soon as I saw them I knew I had to use that marbled armour somehow with a new Chapter (unorginial yes, but it was such an awesome idea I couldnt resist).

My tanks will be slightly different in the way they are modelled, to go along with the fluff stating that the Chapter's goal is to hunt down and retrieve stolen and lost artifacts. I want to have a strong Mechanicum feel, as they will be the only members of the Chapter allowed to handle the recovered artifacts, aside from the Father Librarians. I would like to have a lot of books, similiar to what you can find in the Dark Angels upgrade packs, as well as purity seals, writing like on this tank, and icons/hiroglyphics.

Also, I have been playing around a bit more with the background, Jake had brought up a good point on Heresy that I decided to run with. Since the leadership of the Chapter is a council like the Iron Hands vs a single Chapter Master, I thought it would be cool to have a few of the Fathers become corrupted by Chaos, who has decided to use their psychic abilities against them, seeding heretical thoughts into their heads without them knowing, slowly turning them to the dark gods. Since the supposed homeworld is so close to the Eye of Terror, I think this would easily be plausible, and could create a rift in the chapter. 2 of the 5 Fathers that lead the Ordos Immortalis will become corrupted, resulting in a small portion of the Chapter following them in a civil war. Knowing they are outnumbered and outgunned by the Mechanicum, they decide to steal a powerful artifact previously recovered, and take it with them into the Eye of Terror. This sparks the interest of the Inquisition, who in turn decides to attatch a unit of Daemonhunters to the Order, giving me some fun new minis to mess around with while building my army at the same time :P

Heres the game plan for the make up of the army when it comes to tabletop, its rough, but gets the point across.

HQ: Mephiston counts-as
Elites: 3 Librarian Furioso Dreads
Troops - haven't decided what I will use yet, but if I go with a squad of Daemonhunters, they will be a counts-as Death Company choice. All troops will be mounted in Razorback Transports
Fast Attack - still looking into that as well
Heavy Support: Mechanicum controlled Vindicators, maybe a Devastator squad using the Tech Marine servitors.

Hopefully somewhere in the future, this will come together more coherently than a bunch of random notes, but for now this will have to do haha.

Cheers

The Ordo Immortalis

Here is the Colour Scheme (its sort of rough) for my new Chapter, the armour will look more like actual Marble when I paint them, but for the generator I just used the colour shown. Let me know what you think. Also changed the Founding Chapter from "Unkown" to a Blood Angels successor (for purposes of army composition, and this way I won't have to buy Codex: Space Marines :P)

If you check the link below to Heresy where the original post is on this new Chapter, I will be occasionally updating the fluff as I do more research - the latest update is from an hour or so ago. If you aren't already a member of Heresy, I would highly suggest becoming one, it has helped me out with ideas on modelling and fluff on more than one occasion.

Cheers

DIY Space Marine Chapter - Still a WIP

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Between New Years, Jake getting sick, and my car accident, we have been pretty distracted from the blog. I thought I would throw this up rather than keep it hidden in a notebook; does no good if no one can comment/critique/give their opinion. After finishing my Blood Angels army (aside from painting) I have decided to add another project to the list of things I need to get done. There have always been a select few SM Chapters that have had aspects which really caught my attention - The Iron Hands and their huge Mechanicum influence, the Ordo Psykana and their heavy use of psykers and Librarians, and the Deathwatch and their elite tactics, choice of members, and recruiting process.

Over the past few days I have been attempting to combine this all into one kick ass Chapter that would be fun to play, have some cool background fluff, and of course the potential for some cool conversions.

Here is what I have so far - but keep in mind, it is still a very rough work in progress, and missing a lot of specifics. However, this should give you a basic idea - opinions and critiques are most definitely welcome, as well as some proposed additions or ideas! You can also find it here.

Name: Ordo Immortalis
Colours: Marbeled armour with gold trim
Founding Chapter: Unknown
Founding: Unkown
Chapter Master: The Chapter is run like a clan with no known Chapter Master, but rather a council in which all the decisions are voted on and discussed
Specialty: Quick, precise attacks with an uncanny knowledge of enemy strengths, locations, and inner workings
Strength: Estimated at 750 strong, though the precise strength is unknown
Homeworld: No known homeworld, though there have been whispers of a Fortress Monastary located on a world just outside the Eye of terror, and prtected by an incredibly resilient psychic field. It is said that located within the monastary is an immense library, full of ancient knowledge, lost relics, and advanced experimental technology.


I can't copy+paste for some reason, so rather than type out the background, here is the basic overview:

The organization of the Chapter consists of a great number of psykers and librarians recruited in a fashion similar to the Deathwatch. The Chapter works closely with a mysterious group of Mechanicum. It has also been recorded that the Chapter has worked alongside the Inquisition in the past, though the current relationship between the two forces is unknown. The Ordos Immortalis have taken on the duty of recovering all manner of lost or stolen relics, artifacts, technology and knowledge, and prefer to remain shrouded in mystery.

For modeling purposes: So far, I know for sure I will be using dark angel robed heads on every Marine. Other than that, I am still thinking of other ways to make them identifiable, similar to the Deathwatch shoulder pad. The army may use the CSM codex, troops choices being Thousand Sons (for the psyker squad leaders) but that is still up in the air. The HQ will be a Librarian, but for the purposes of my army, a Father Librarian and then a Master of the Forge (or, with CSM, a chaos lord in termi armour with a daemon weapon).

That's what I've got so far, like I said, a lot more work to be done.

Cheers!

I Love Specialist Games

In an attempt to keep busy during the surplus of family time that I've had over the past week or so I dug out a bunch of board games we had lying around. I'm not a hardcore boardgamer and only really have the classics - Risk, Monopoly, Clue. But when I was going through our collection I stumbled on a game from a few years ago that I'd never tried before, Milton Bradley's Battle Ball. It was easy to pick up, and while the rules are very poorly written, my family and friends spent a few quality hours playing it.


I was having a particularly enjoyable game with one of my other friends that I play 40k with, who asked if it was anything like Blood Bowl. I admitted that I knew very little of Blood Bowl, but we were having such a good time with the poorly constructed Battle Ball game that it only stood to reason that such a game with a solid set of rules would be even more fun. I spent the next couple of days researching anything I could find on Blood Bowl, which, for someone with an internet connection, is quite a lot! I started with the reference page on Games Workshop and read their competition rulebook which had me interested but didn't seem very accessible for a new player.

On a whim I googled "Blood Bowl Podcast" and found an absolutely fantastic show called "3 Die Block." They have an episode from October of 2009 for beginning Blood Bowl players that details everything about the game in an easy to understand format where one of the hosts assumes the roll of a Blood Bowl novice, and asks questions about the game mechanics that the other host then answers. It was a really great show that made it feel like I was personally being taught how to play by a couple of local veterans.

There are two problems with Blood Bowl, as with any specialist game: old miniatures, and the need for a thriving community. The miniatures problem is easily tackled with all the new GW plastic ranges (I'm planning on converting up a team of Orcs). When it comes to the 2nd problem, I'm in a very lucky position. Evan and I live thirty minutes from the LA Battle Bunker which provides awesome support for the specialist games ranges!

I've taken advantage of this community support by playing Epic 40,000. Epic is such a fantastic game! I'm the type of person who has every episode of Battle Plan recorded on their DVR, and reads memoirs of Guderian, Patton, and Rommel. The application of tactics are what got me into wargaming in the first place, and Epic truly gives the experience of strategically commanding an army.

Epic Troops

Super Heavy Detachment

The Crown Jewel of my Epic IG

Epic Aircraft. I also use these for Forgeworld's Aeronautica Game.

The other thing I like about Specialist Games is the involvement of the community. For both Epic, and Blood Bowl, there are a variety of community collaborated "Living Rulebooks" which keep the 20+ year old games up to date, and it is up to the community to design terrain, convert better looking minis, and generally maintain everything about the game. I feel like these games belong to the community, where the bigger games like 40k and Fantasy belong to GW.

A Piece of Epic Terrain I made from Sacrificing an Ork Great Gargant.

This is why I love the Specialist Games ranges, and why in the new year I want to make them a bigger part of my hobby experience. Along with the Chaos Challenge, my primary hobby focus for the new year will be constructing a Blood Bowl team or two, designing and building a custom Orky pitch, and participating more often in the local Specialist Games community.

What are some of your new years hobby resolutions?

Merry Christmas!

Hey guys, just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas! Or a happy holidays depending on your religion, I hope you all had a great day and were able to spend time with the family and get some sweet stuff! :D

Sorry for the lack of posts, the holidays have slowed things down a bit . The Chaos challenge is still on, I got a lot of cool minis today, and look forward to posting porgress on my Nurgle army, full of lots of conversions and a fairly cool paintjob :) - sort of unorthodox means of painting the Marines, but it turned out pretty good. I will post pics and the steps in the paintjob within the next day or two.

Time to get drunk with the fam, play some goofy American Idol PS2 game (a game that can only be played drunk) and pass out on the floor :P

Cheers!

Holiday Giveaway Prize

Papa JJ, the winner of our holiday giveaway, requested a drop pod for his Raptors Space Marine Army and here it is! Evan and I picked this up for him today from our FLGS, Brookhurst Hobbies.

We'd like to thank Brookhurst for making this giveaway possible with their 20% discount on all Games Workshop products. Check out their website here.

You can also check out Papa JJ's Raptor's project on his blog dicerolla.

Congratulations Papa JJ, enjoy the drop pod!