Expanding Gorkamorka Part II

As promised In this part I plan to outline some ideas for the terrain features to fight
over in your Gorkamorka games.

Scrap heaps:

This area is loaded with scrap and is a good place to find someone to fight because of it.

The controlling player of this tile may generate an additional d6 teef at the end of their
turn.

Campsite

This area is a good spot to take a break from the desert of gorkamorka and is often
frequented by the celebrities of Gorkamorka

The controlling player may add +1 when rolling for special characters(both for searching and as an underdog).

Tar Fields
This area has many pools of tar bubbling noxious fumes in the air. The putrid smells and the tar slicks make it difficult to traverse

Players trying to take another turn after winning at this tile need to roll a 6+ instead of a 4+

Secret Ammo Cache
Some clever nobz store weapons and ammo out in the desert in case of an emergency.

The controlling player always pass an ammo roll on a 2+

Fungus Cavern
In some dark cool caves out in the desert of Gorkamorka Ork spores can take root and over time give rise to a yoof

At the end of the controlling players turn, if they haven't attempted to take extra tiles they may search for a yoof On a 5+ the player gets a free yoof to their roster.

Brewhouse
Out in the desert some enterprising orks set up brewhouses and slop shops for the for the warriors in the desert to relax, open a bottle of fungus beer, and kick some worthless grotz

Controlling player can reroll head wound rolls and old battle rule rolls at the start of each battle.

These are a few possible tiles that I came up with. The tar pit one might be a little weak and the the cave might be too good. I am a little hesitant to make it too easy for people to gang up on the best mob. I feel that the extra experience and teef(if you win) are enough of a balance.

As far part three I would like to create scenario tables for each tile and special rules for the muties and rebel grotz. As always feedback is greatly appreciated

Killa Kans Complete!

My second post has been a long time in coming, but it is finally here. Having acquired a camera, I thought it would be a great opportunity to show pictures of the killa kans I assembled. And show them I shall.

The unit:

Here is killa kan #1:

And killa kan #2:

And killa kan #3:

I am very pleased with their overall appearance, particularly their air of simplicity. With all the shoulder pads, skyscraper-like exhaust pipes, and armored jaws I think GW’s killa kans come across a little cluttered. I also think the rocket launchers look better when they are not attached to a piston-driven arm like the claws (probably because they resemble the old metal ones).

Having had such a good time assembling the plastic killa kans, I am a little worried I will not have the fortitude to assemble anymore of the metal ones…

Expanding Gorkamorka Part 1

In an attempt to use the planetary empires set I just purchased and to help give the GM games better sense of a campaign, I am trying to develop a map based rule system. The idea is to tie the games together more and have the players fight over territory. First off these rules are not yet finalized and need to be play-tested so feel free to leave any changes that you think may be necessary.

Setup:

I recommend that the board be made up of 3-4 tiles for each player. The players take turn placing the tiles until they are all placed following the rules found in Planetary Empires or Mighty Empires. After the Tiles are set up each ork player takes turns placing a fort to represent well their fort! Then players choose other terrain features to battle over.

The Campaign:

Winning the campaign involves taking over all the tiles. Players take turns starting with the first player, this player is considered the attacking player and should be treated as such for all scenarios. The attacking player may choose to attack any territory that is adjacent to their own. After the tile has been selected roll on the appropriate table to determine the scenario.

If the attacking player wins the scenario, they may choose to attempt to take another tile that is adjacent title to one of his own. The attacking player rolls a d6 and on a score of 4+ play another scenario. This may happen as may times as the attacker chooses although the attacking player may not go to Mektown, and cannot buy equipment, go to the meks, docs, or recruit new ladz. They may generate income as normal. A players turns ends after the attacking player chooses not to attack or fails the 4+ roll.

So there is the initial rules breakdown, I am not sure if after rolling to continue attacking if they should generate income or not. Next post will outline some of the terrain features to fight over

Muties Explained

So one of the projects that I am working on for Gorkamorka is a mutie mob. The muties are a mob that are found in the Digganob supplement. They are a ragtag band of mutants that have a bitter hatred towards the orks for crashing the the muties spaceship into the planet.

Currently there are no models for the mutants, so I was planning to make some snaga models. Snagas are the smaller quicker muties. I plan on using some beastmen heads and arms, kroot torsos and some of the bitz that they come with. For legs I am going to try the wood elves riders legs. The mutie beast is going to be a cold one. Hopefully I will be able to get some trimming done this weekend and post some pictures of my progress.

No one will ever believe you....

This post covers my initial impressions, and rants, about creating Gorkamorka (GM) gangs and some of the strategies involved. I reserve the right to take back anything I say if it turns out that I am completely wrong.

Choppas are pretty boring.
Yeah it's true everyone has them and I can't really blame them. Initially you really feel like you need the strength bonus to be able to wound anybody. Plus the minus to armour save is great and they are really cheap too. I just really feel like the game would be a little more exciting if somebody used a spear or something. You can only wound on a 2+ so eventually it may end up not being a big deal. I am hoping the increase in odd mobs will be an encouragement to try different things like chains, or prove that blocking is worth it and maybe have mobs incorporate shields.

Maybe Morkers are cool too?
I am pretty sure that Eric is a Morker, but the other two gangs are Gorkers in my gaming group. It seems to me that many of the skill tables are largely ignored and re-reading them would probably be a good thing, as I am sure there are some good skills to learn and try out. Besides you don't need 4 guys in your mob to have chuck.

Shooting is fun.
I am a Warrhammer 40,000 player and I am quite used to not shooting, but it seems to have a lot of potential in GM. The lads can get a great ballistic skill and become skilled sharpshooters. Also, when you do well you feel like a kid with an ice cream cone. In some ways I would like to make a new list that focused on shootin' the place up, you know, just for fun.

Money is hard to get, harder to keep.
The income table is a twisted evil experiment that the game developers created. No matter how you shake it you'll only end up with about 7-11 teef. So every little bit counts, but at this point I haven't found the best ork economic system yet.

The More Trukks the Merrier.
Getting multiple trukks lets you have the freedom of doing more things and can pay off in dividends with winning scenarios, I am looking at you Convoy. If I were to do it all over, I think I would forgo the early big shoota and try to get another trukk or trakk to give my mob some more flexibility.

Well those are my initial thoughts feel free to pick them apart.

Citadel Hall of Fame

I am not sure if everybody saw this or not. I found the reasons why people picked their nominations to be very interesting. Eric and I not to long ago were discussing how people must like different things than we do(and why so many new models are bad), so it was really fortuitous to see an article like this.

I pretty much think people have picked great models so far. I never really thought much of the Cadian Colonel but Brian Nelson's explanations gave me a greater appreciation for it. Anyone have a guess what ork model is made after Elton John?

The Grail Reliquae model seems like it had tons of potential, a dead venerated knight seems like a neat idea, but the pilgrims always looked not right to me.

Picking Jes Goodwin's Plastic Space Marine seems like a little bit of a cheat, but I never really was a fan of John Blanche's artwork or models(conversions) so I am not surprised I find his pick pretty lame. I think that the space marines are good and about as iconic as it can get but a real model would have been nice and not just a sprue . I guess they certainly couldn't use any of the character models, he he.

I did not expect the harlequin model to be chosen, I liked those models but I didn't think that they were groundbreaking. The comment about free-painting surfaces makes sense, so I guess less is more sometimes.

I am glad the orc shaman was chosen, It truly has stood the test of time and is better than any of the other alternatives that are out there. I am surprised to learn that Brain's first attempt at orks were bad. The world would be a different place without his second chance that is for sure. Without his orks I probably would not be playing Warhammer 40k, or any Games Workshop games.

If I had to pick a model right now without giving it much thought I would have to pick Gorbad Ironclaw. I really like the motion of the model and the vibes that it gives off. It really fits as a menacing warboss really well. Too bad the rules for him leave something to desire.

Review: Killa kans!

So this is my first post on ‘ERE WE GO and while my time is largely occupied with work at graduate school, I hope to continue posting on and off. Currently much of my free time has been spent assembling a unit of killa kans from the new multi-part plastic boxed set. What better a time to write a review of the kit? I will apologize now that my digital camera is out of commission, so there will be no pictures.

First and foremost, these little guys are much easier to work with than Brian Nelson’s aged metal versions. This primarily stems from the fact that the pieces are cast in such a fashion that they actually fit together; and while I love Nelson’s version, the two halves of the hull simply do not fit together without a great deal of filing and cursing. On top of the labors required to piece the metal ones together, somewhere along the way GW, in their infinite wisdom, decided that of the three variants designed only one was needed and limited their production to that variant. This made conversion work essential, which did not bode very well with their resilient white metal frame. The plastic kit resolves these issues nicely, providing you with three different bodies whose parts can be interchanged amongst one another. Additionally, there are three different engine blocks that add even more variety to the models. I also feel I should mention the casting on the kit is wonderful; the details are crisp and well defined and the sprues are designed to minimize mold lines (truly something to smile about).

While I am very pleased with the kit in general, there are a few things that could have been a little better. My primary concern is the lack of arms, this includes both the guns and those for close combat. Sadly they only give you one of each gun, so if you were fancying a unit kitted out with rocket launchers you will have some converting work ahead of you. Also, while I am happy they included the grotzooka, they decided against including a kustom mega-blasta. On a positive note, the deff dread gun arms can easily be modified and used on the killa kans (the deff dread comes with two of each weapon, including the kustom mega-blasta). While not really a problem with the killa kans, some of the close combat weapons for the killa kans are reused on the deff dread. Aside from the lack of guns, there is also a surprising lack of extra pieces to customize your walkers. Once you assemble the base models, you will find that you used nearly all of the pieces in the kit, leaving very little to come back to for future conversions.

In terms of aesthetics, I think Dale Stringer has done a pretty good job at merging the shifting persona of the orks from the various editions. The new models exude that kind of quirky 2nd edition vibe while still retaining much of simplicity and brutality pioneered by Brian Nelson in the 3rd edition. And while I welcome some of the comical nature coming back, I only welcome it in moderation. Some of the pieces in the kit are a little too over the top for my taste. This is particularly true with some of the exhaust pipes for the engines. It is almost like each one is competing with the next to be as big and unwieldy as possible. Thankfully the worst of the offenders are separate pieces that must be glued on. With a little greenstuff work the exhaust pipes can be refashioned to a more reasonable size and complexity. Along these same lines, some of the close combat claws/buzz saws are a little busy and flashy (much of the worst of it can be removed with a little trimming). Each of the walkers also has two peg holes on their front hull to glue on three different decorations coming in the form of various jaws and tusks. I found the jaws made the overall model look a little cluttered and opted to convert tusks for all three of the models (tusks taken from a variety of black orc and orc models). Still, the overall look of the models is very pleasing and I could not help but smile as I began gluing the walkers together.

If you were ever considering a unit of killa kans, never has there been a better time to do so, as you get three in a single box. Priced at $45 you cannot go wrong considering a few weeks ago you had to buy the metal ones separately for around $25. My dreams of a legion of death walkers are now more possible than ever and I am nothing but pleased.