Ogre Circus: Ogre Star!

I think we might be transitioning to this later time for posting- getting the posts ready by noon just ain't happening nowadays.

Earlier I talked about my thoughts for the 1500 part of my Fantasy escalation league. Here's the list that I ended up with:

Tyrant, Sword of Battle, Heavy Armor, Wyrdstone Necklace, Iron Curse Icon

Butcher, Talisman of Preservation
Bruiser *, BSB, Runemaw, Hvy Armor, Look Out Gnoblar, Cathayan Longsword

9 Bulls, Ironfists, Bellower
6 Ironguts, Standard Bearer
20 Gnoblars

Scraplauncher

*The FAQ has errataed that the BSB can have standard upgrades, just no other magical items.

Basically the heroes and Tyrant joined with the 9 bulls to form an Ogre deathstar. I know, I know, deathstars were last edition, but it seemed like the best plan at this points level and with the models I had. Plus it is fairly magic proof thanks to the Runemaw and nearby Gnoblar squads.

I only got to get one game in on Sunday and it was against O&G. He had a large mob of Night Goblins, a mob of Black Orcs (I think), some Arrer Boyz, a pump wagon and a rock lobba. We rolled up Battle for the Pass and went at it.

 The game was mostly one of me charging and him running away. My Scrappie was on fire, smashing orcs and goblins to pieces. His rock lobba was more unlucky, killing one whole Ogre Bull over the course of the game before mishapping into a self destruct. After about 4 turns of maneuvering I finally got my chance to smash into his block of night gobbies, mowing them down over two turns. The only unit I lost were the 20 gnoblars, which was equal points to the pumpwagon that he lost to his own fanatic.

So, a very lucky game for me, but it showed off some of the strengths and weaknesses of my army.

• The deathstar was unassailable, having regeneration and magic protection up for most of the game. 
• The scrappie was golden, doing plenty of damage over the course of the game while hanging out in the back end of the table.
• Gnoblars were worthless in combat, but great for shunting enemy spells and serving as charge bait
• On the flip side, my deathstar was fairly easy to bait and flee. If the terrain had been a bit more forgiving I could have gotten my Ironguts into melee as well, but as it was my Ogrestar wandered around unsupported.

For expanding to 2k I'd like to have two hard hitting blocks of Ogre Bulls. That, plus a few blocks of gnoblars and the Ironguts backed by a pair of Scrappies should lead to a good, balanced force.

Thanks for reading, and see you tomorrow.

RPG: And on the First Day...

First, don't forget about Machine of Death!

A new section of this site is going to be opening up, and that's RPGs. Like many of you I've been involved with a few RPG groups over the years, mostly in the World of Darkness. Something about it just speaks to me, the way that our world has something terrible just lying underneath the veneer of civilization and if only we could see it we would be afraid to leave our homes at night. It also in my experience has led to the most actual "roleplaying" of any game I've played as the social and moral decisions are just as important as what kind of ammo to bring to a vampire hunt (hint: dragonsbreath). Changeling from the New World of Darkness is probably my favorite, and definitely the one that I had the most fun running.

Ah GMing. Such a power trip and so much fun. I'm always having cool plot ideas pop into my head from things I've read or seen or just the twisted workings of my own mind. And getting people to actually walk around in my world and see the things that I thought of? Amazing.

Unfortunately I have a bit of problem with execution. I'm great at world building, at creating characterful locales and... well, characters. I'm also good at doing individual sessions, creating great short story arcs and have the ability to bullshit my way out of pretty much any situation (thank you liberal arts education!)

What I don't have is long term story planning. If it takes more than three or four sessions to work through I probably haven't thought that far ahead. The beginning and the possible endings are very clear to me but those annoying little steps in between just never seem to make sense in my head. I've occasionally gotten it to work but eventually I drop the ball and the campaign goes downhill.

The other GMs in my gaming group also have their share of strengths and weaknesses, but it was only recently that we came across a solution to it. Why don't we pool our resources to create one super meta-campaign? Filled with pre-made characters and locations, factions and power groups, secrets and mysteries?

Why don't we build a city?

I'll be getting more into our thought processes on this bold experiment and, hopefully within a few months, we'll start seeing the fruition of this project. Until then, thanks for reading.

The above image belongs to White Wolf and is taken without permission from Wallpaperpimper.com.

Shout Out: Machine of Death

Today's post is going out to a little band of indie book publishers-who-could and their impossible dream: to become the best-sellers on Amazon for just one day. That day is October 26th, and the book is Machine of Death. It's an anthology of short stories submitted by many comic, magazine, blog and webcomic (including Randal Munroe of xkcd!) writers from around the world talking about the eponymous Machine of Death, a machine that can predict how you are going to die.

The really cool thing about this project is that on November 2nd it will be released for free as a pdf and audiobook and all proceeds from the sale of the physical book will go directly to the authors. Screw the middle man!

Here's an excerpt from the site:

This isn’t some vanity-press sour-grapes effort. The simple truth is that we probablycan’t compete on the shelves at Barnes & Noble alongside every other book in the world. The agents and the publishers are right; it might not work for a mass market. That’s okay. We don’t need to sell it to everyone. We don’t need to sell 100,000 copies; we don’t have the rent on a New York office to pay for.

We only need to sell it to you.

On October 26, we want to send a message that a little project dragged kicking and screaming from “crazy idea” past “it’ll never work” all the way to “By God, they actuallydid it” can make a big splash. We’re internet people; you are too. We want to prove to all the people who said “this will never sell” that internet people make things happen.

So, if you like the little guy, enjoy dark irony or just love webcomics, buy this book on October 26th!

More substantive posting returns tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

Recipe: Meat Cupcakes!

And now, for something completely different... meat cup cakes!

Ogre Circus: 1500 List Thoughts

Apologies for the late post today- I have a certification test coming up for work tomorrow and have been sillily (is that a real word?) preparing for that rather than working on my toy monsters. So, in lieu of any hobby update I thought I would type up the list that I am hoping to run on Sunday for the 1500 phase of the escalation league.

Ogre Circus: Painted Sideshow, Part 3

For Part 1 and Part 2

Today we come to the final part of the trio of Terrors, the Minotaur. Now, I'd like to take a minute here to say that I am against animal cruelty in all forms. Even the more savage beasts have a right to be exempt from cruelty.

But beast-men? Now there's something that can take some beating.

Ogre Circus: Painted Sideshow, Part 2

Continuing from yesterday's post we have the second of the Terrors of the Known World for your viewing pleasure: The Kroxigor.

Ogre Circus: Painted Sideshow, Part 1

Hello all, and welcome back. I'm going to start off this week with some looks at my painted Sideshow, the Terrors of the Known World, which you last saw here. The idea was to take Ogre-sized monstrous infantry from the other races and use them as Ironguts in my Circus, which I think I succeeded in doing.

Ogre Circus: Burnam, Ringmaster of da Biggest Show on Earth!

Speaking of suiting up...

LA-DEEZ AND GENTLEMEN! BOYZ AND NOBZ! SPAWN OF ALL DEITIES! IF I COULD HAVE YOUR ATTEN-SHUN PUH-LEEZE! INTRODUCIN' DA GREAT, DA POWERFUL, RINGMASTER BURNAM!

Shout Out: Suit Up! With Crew Shaken, Not Stirred

This here post is a shout out to one of my new favorite blogs and fellow recent Top X placer, Crew Shaken, Not Stirred, bringing all sorts of cocktail and suited goodness to we poor denizens of the 40k blogosphere.

I'm also a fan of a nice suit and busting out the class every once in a while. Heck, I don't even have to wear them to work but still choose to do so for "Formal Fridays." It's all about style.

So why am I painting in a suit? Because it's International Suit Up Day. Who let me know that such a blessed event was going to occur? Crew Shaken Not Stirred. Who's helping me pick out the next selections for my liquor cabinet? The same.

So head on over, pour yourself a stiff drink and start seeing your minis in a new light.

And remember, Success Wears a Suit.

Ogre Circus: The Butch- err, Sweet Vendor

One of the simplest conversions that you can make in an Ogre army is the Butcher/Slaughtermaster. Sure you could go all out and buy the metal model, but why do that when you have so many Bulls lying around? Most of what you need to do is flatten out a piece of greenstuff and let it cure for a few hours. Grab a beer, paint some other models, then come back and put an apron on your bull. Instantly you have a butcher. Gussy him up with some blades for hands or big slabs of raw meat and blood spatters and you're good to go.

Ogre Circus: Ironguts

 I needed a break from all of the conversion heavy projects, so just some bog-standard Ironguts today. They do stand out as being the first models that I started my more "official" paint scheme on. The red and yellow pants will become a key theme throughout the non-clown elements of my army, and I'll be trying to incorporate the two colors as much as possible throughout the models. Somehow, no other color combination seems to say "circus" as much as bright red and yellow. Enjoy!

Ogre Circus: The Sideshow

Today I thought that I might show another part of the army that I am working on, the Terrors of the Known World. These guys sprang out of my mind while trying to think of a way to get Ironguts to fit my theme. Armored clowns seemed weird, circus security seemed to lame, so what to do?

 And then it hit me... the old circuses/carnivals used to have a side show where they'd show off the freaks of nature and humanity. Which turns out to be really easy to convert to Warhammer terms! Give those inbred peasants a taste of adventure- let them see the big beasties up close and personal!

Ogre Circus: A Car of Clowns

No, there is no actual clown car. But there are plenty of painted clowns to see!

Ogre Circus: GORGER POLL!

For those of you that skim, check out the poll over on the right!

To begin today's post, I'd like to extend my thanks to both Ryan from On The Painting Table and the dynamic duo Brent and John (Lauby? John? Eh, I give up) for placing Defending Humanity in the FTW Top 10 and HoPcakes Top X lists this week. Thanks guys- it's awesome to get great positive feedback from the community. And I totally wasn't lazy and put that HoP logo up before today... :)

Ogre Circus: Chuckles, a Portrait of a Clown

Today I have a painted up Ogre clown to show you. Chuckles demanded that he be the first, and with that murderous stare I dare not say no to him. Enjoy!

Truly, the world has not seen such a FEARSOME adversary of frowns!

The Ironfist is mostly for decorational purposes...

... as this clown prefers to use his club to beat his opponents... well, silly!

And yes, all of my clowns have clown shoes. I cobbled them together from a pair of ironfists and some greenstuff and they didn't turn out half-bad if I do say so myself.

Next, some more of the clowns painted up. Thanks for reading!

Ogre Circus: Clown Faces

Seeing as Ogre armies have so few models and I am a fair bit ridiculous, I have decided that they shall all have names. So come on in, set up a chair and meet the clowns!



Chaplin here is a very refined Ogre... he devours at least three middle class English bankers a day! He'll soon be holding my banner, but for right now he has a stick of Beating.

Ogre Circus: Send in the Clowns

LADIES and GENTLEMAN, CHILDREN of ALL AGES! I direct your attention to the large tent that has sprouted just outside the walls of your fair city, its red and yellow stripes flapping in the breeze! I am Burnam, Tyrant and Ringmaster of Burnam and Butcher's BIGGEST.... SHOW... ON... EARTH!

Manticore, The Competitive Option

For the tournament I decided to upgrade my firepower by adding a Manticore to the list. Being able to drop tons of strength 10 pie plates from out of the sky is just brutal, instakilling characters, popping land raiders... it just does everything!