PATH TO GLORY - Age of Sigmar

Before we learned about the 40k Path to Glory rules, my friend and I wanted to start our Age of Sigmar collections by doing a small Path to Glory campaign and seen in the General's Handbook. Our 40k campaign took precedence as we already have enough models to make those warbands, and would take less effort and money.

However, in the future we plan on going ahead with our Age of Sigmar campaign. Our warbands have been rolled for, and now all we have to do is get the models and paint them up.

My opponent always wanted a Vampire Counts army in Warhammer Fantasy but never got around to it. Now is his chance to scratch his necromantic itch and start a Death warband. His warband comprises a Wight King, 3 units of skeletons, 2 units of Grave Guard, and a unit of Black Knights. He wanted one of his skeleton units to be archers as seen in the defunct Tomb Kings rules.

As for my army, I went for a Chaos army (this was before we decided to do a 40k Path to Glory campaign). I've always had a bit of a soft spot of Tzeentch. In my Word Bearer's daemonic allies force Tzeentch was my second choice of patron after Slaanesh. Now was my chance to do an entire Tzeentchian army. So I made my rolls, and got a unit of Marauders, 2 units of Chaos Knights, and 2 units of Spawn. My friend also allowed me to use the Gaunt Summoner as my army's general, simply because GW have yet to release a Chaos Sorcerer on Disc of Tzeentch that I like.

When the first issue of the new and much improved White Dwarf came out, they released it with a free Khorne Slaughterpriest model. Jumping at the opportunity for free stuff, I snapped up my copy and set about converting the Slaughterpriest for my own nefarious ends, taking off all the khornate imagery and adding greenstuff flames to his sword and enclosed fist. With this simple conversion, I had a future Chaos Lord for my Tzeentch warband. I used him as a sort of test model to try out the colour scheme I will use on my marauders (and the rest of my army).

In the end, I quite like the result. I wanted him to look like a barbarian, but fueled and strengthened by the magic of his Master. Also, as this was a single model, I spent a bit more time on him. I still find it hard to maintain my interest when painting, but I think I found an ok balance here.

PATH TO GLORY - 40k

Recently, my friend and I started on a 40k Path to Glory campaign. For those who don't know, Path to Glory is a small campaign system whereby each player chooses a small warband of models at the beginning and evolve the warband between games. Warbands are generally randomly chosen from a series of tables by rolling a D6. The campaign is Chaos-centric in the base rules, but I see no reason why people couldn't make random tables for their own armies. I was tempted to do orks for the campaign, but I play orks too much so I stuck with Chaos. My friend also stuck with his Death Guard army, only using models he has available in his collection. Myself, on the other hand, decided to dig out some of my old models and spruce them up a bit, effectively making a new army for the campaign.

I had a plethora of metal sonic weapons from way back in my Emperor's Children days, but as I moved away from Slaanesh and made a Word Bearer army, my stash of sonic weapons went into my bitz box... until now.

We selected our Lords using the normal Path to Glory rules, and randomly generated our warbands (give or take a few units so we could build things using models/parts we already have). You can see our starting warbands below.

 My opponent's army consisted of his Lord, armed with a Lightning Claw and the Murder Sword, and wearing terminator armour. He has a second Lord armed with a simple power sword.
For his troops, he has a squad of 10 Chaos Marines with the Mark of Nurgle, and a unit of 7 Plague Marines with free rhino.
For his final roll, he got a Chaos Spawn.

For my army, I chose a Lord with twin lightning claws. He also has an attack familiar, simply because I've had the dark eldar slave models for years and wanted to put one to some use. My second in command is a Sorcerer.
For my troops, I rolled for a unit of Chaos Space Marines, which I gave the Mark of Slaanesh, a unit of Noise Marines, and a unit of Raptors. However, I soon decided to swap the Raptors out for a second unit of Noise Marines.

A squad of havocs rounded out the force nicely. I converted them to look like Noise Marines themselves, just for flavour, but count as being armed with 2 missile launchers and 2 heavy bolters.

Opening Skirmish
We opened the campaign with a mission rolled for in the main rulebook. We rolled a Dawn of War deployment, with The Scouring objective. During the game, my Noise Marines held 2 of the objectives in my deployment zone, while the 10-man Death Guard unit held one in theirs. In the middle there was a large scrap between my Lord, my 10-man unit, the Plague Marines and both enemy Lords. Somehow the Slaaneshi marines held against this onslaught just long enough to win me the game. My sorcerer also got involved, but due to me not knowing his Force Staff was only AP4, his impact on the battle was lackluster at best. He did, however, manage to get off some powerful Psychic Shriek attacks.
For my victory this game, I got 2 glory points, while my opponent got the 1.

Game 2
When rolling between games to expand our warbands, we both rolled for a vehicle. I got a Maulerfiend, which is handy because I already had one in my Word Bearer army, and my opponent got a Defiler.
For our second game, it was much more of a close game, a veritable bloodbath which is how we like it. This time we had an Emperor's Will objective (an objective in each of our deployment zones). My Maulerfiend got stuck into the Plague Marines and lesser Lord early on, and held them up for nearly the entire game. He slowly mashed his way through them, being lucky to avoid 90% of their meltabombs, krak grenades and power fist attacks.
The enemy defiler, however, was a bit more destructive, turning the 10-man squad of Slaaneshi marines into mush in turn 1 with its battle cannon, leaving only the Lord and a few guys alive. But even this devastating attack was not enough to stop the remainder of the unit marching forward and contesting the Plague Marine objective.
Later in the game, however, the defiler finished the job from its firing position on a ridge to one side of the battlefield, and even managed to rip apart the Maulerfiend in close combat into the bargain.
Midway through the game, the Nurgle terminator Lord Deep Struck into my side of the battlefield to claim my own objective, but my Havocs and Noise Marine squads managed to keep hold of it until the bitter end.
After seven turns (Nurgle's favoured number indeed!) I still held my objective, and Nurgle did not hold theirs as their backline had been decimated by my Sorcerer some time before, and victory went to the followers of Slaanesh for the second time.
As for glory points, I rolled 3, giving me a total of 5 to my opponent's 2.

Rolling for new units, my opponent got another character in the form of a Warpsmith, while I rolled another vehicle. This time I got a predator, but I swapped it out for a Chaos Vindicator as I already have one of those in my Word Bearer force.

In all, the campaign has been very interesting. I quite like the random nature of warband creation, but only wish I had the funds to stick to it and build the army I actually rolled for, instead of swapping out some options for ones I already have.
My Lord is somewhat lacking in terms of his damage output. I gave him lightning claws in the hope he would be very killy and choppy, but he doesn't do much, and his attack familiar is yet to cause a single casualty in both games! My sorcerer, while pants in combat, is pretty destructive with his psychic powers, and I look forward to seeing what he can do in the future.
I stand by my opinion that Sonic Weapons are a mixed bag. I am glad that Path to Glory doesn't use points values because I find sonic blasters verging on useless for the amount of points they cost. I've probably killed, maybe 2 models in total with the sonic blasters. The blastmasters, on the other hand, are brutal. A strength 8, AP 3 blast is nothing to scoff at. Like large boyz mobs are to the nobz that lead them, I feel like the rest of the Noise Marine unit is just a delivery system to keep the blastmaster alive while it works its magic.

Zzodzog's Ambition Campaign Chapter 1 - Reinforcements...

Zzodzog opened his eyes to a dull grey sky. He wasn't sure how long he'd been out, but it couldn't have been long. He remembered his fight with one of them stinky boyz from one of the portals. He remembered the black, jagged blade piercing his skin. It hurt a bit (though he'd never admit it) and it takes a lot for an ork to feel pain.

"Better get Scruffa to look it over anyway." He though to himself, checking his arms. The wounds were deep, and wept with black pus. "Oh, wait. He got squished!" He chuckled to himself, and hauled himself to his feet.

Looking around, he saw he was in a crater. Not one caused by a big bomb blast, or a boom gun, and not even by his shokk attack gun. Its caldera was lined with cracks as deep and black as infinity, and they rippled with streaks of purple electricity. Stepping to the crater's rim, Zzodzog peered over the top, and some meters away he could see a large gathering of daemons. They crowded around something. They were facing away for now, looking at whatever they were huddled around. They were making noises, like guttural gurgles, growls and belches. Or were they chanting in some evil and sinister language known only to the morbid denizens of some forgotten realm?

He didn't care. He had a slight itch for a fight. His shokk attack gun was lying in the dust a few feet away, but he felt like a bit of a brawl to stretch out his limbs after his nap. But a new feeling gripped him. He almost didn't want to fight. Looking around, there were no other boyz to back him up. He was on his own. He was no use anymore. No need to throw his genius away in a senseless fight he wouldn't win, right?

If orks are good at anything, its running; either headlong into a swirling melee with sluggas and choppas flailing, or away from the enemy when things get a little... boring. Scrabbling out the far edge of the crater with his favourite weapon in tow, Zzodzog lumbered for the nearest ridge dragging his big gun behind him. Sparing a glance back, he could see a mist rising from amidst the daemons, it swirled purple and green, pulsating with energy, twisting the fabric of the reality around it. It looked exactly like one of the portals that had opened up before. He knew precisely what to do.
After a while of walking, he came to the top of a great sand dune, and peered down. The sounds greeted him first as he squinted down in the harsh sunlight. Another camp was below him; he had reached his destination. He heard gunfire, and the revving of engines, and the bellowing of orks. He was reminded of last night, standing on his balcony overlooking his own settlement below. He wanted his tower back, and he was going to use these other orks to do it.

As he entered the gate to the camp, all the orks about the place hushed and aimed their guns right at him. Zzodzog shrugged and dropped his gun to the sandy floor, and started towards them, but a booming voice rang out from the back of the horde somewhere.
"Hold it!" It called, and from the swarm there pushed and barged a much larger ork, one of the nobz no doubt, and behind him came 4 others of equal stature. They were dressed only in brown, tattered trousers and heavy, steel boots. Their torsos were pockmarked with metal implants and plugs for inserting wires.
"Look what da squig dragged in!" The nob continued, and began circling the big mek. "What brings a little runt like you to my camp?" He kicked at the large gun on the floor. He stood only a few inches above the Big Mek, but his ego far outweighed his height.
Zzodzog simply growled. "You seems ta be gettin' ready fer a fight." He replied. "I got a good fight for ya, up dere in Junktown." He motioned over his shoulder, speaking to the boyz around him, rather than the thick-headed nob who taunted him; he knew this nob well, and also knew he'd get more co-operation out of a well-fed bullgrox.
"Oi, you speak to me or I thump ya. When Zagablud is out of town, den Azragg is da biggest and da bossest!" He bellowed, thumping his chest.
"Den mobilize da boyz." Zzodzog shouted in retort. "We'z got a fight on our 'ands, and its gonna be a good'un. Deze portals opened up, *boom* and den deze weird stinky boyz started pouring out. I seen 'em before, but dey iz itchin' fer a fight. Saddle up ladz, and lets go krump some 'eads!"
The mob began to cheer and bellow loud "Waaaghs!", but they were soon hushed when Azragg spoke. "Oi, you all listen ta me. I'm biggest so I'm da boss." He thwacked Zzodzog sharply on the back of the head.
In truth, Zzodzog held a higher rank in ork heirarchy than Azragg, who was merely a boss of his relative mob. He was also a meganob, and the metal implants and plugs on his body were how he got wired in to his suit.
"And lets not forget who made you yer big, shiny mega armour!" Zzodzog snarled. He turned and threatened Azragg with a fist to the face. They were almost evenly matched if Azragg wasn't in his armour, and the meganob knew this. He laughed, and shoved past Zzodzog, pushing him away and shouting.
"Saddle up, ladz! Let's go krump some 'eads!" Azragg yelled. "And get me mega armour oiled up."

Zzodzog grimaced to himself. He thought of himself as far superior to the orks around him, but this was not unusual for orks. He enjoyed a fight as much as the next ork. If he didn't, he'd still be a runty yoof in some boot kamp somewhere. But he loved making things more. Gunz were his favourite, but he also fancied himself as a sort of armoursmith. He made many suits of mega armour, as well as dreads and kans of all shapes and sizes.
He hoisted his super-shokk kannon onto his shoulder, and prepared to move out. With the stubborn meganob boss out of the way, he began to bellow to the boyz.
"Mangy runts, y'all followin' me now. We'z gonna 'ave a good scrap wiv dem stinky boyz up in Junktown. Dey makes a satisfyin' pop whenever dey die, hurhurhur. And even better iz dere's tons ov 'em. We can krump stuff until da squiggoff's come home. Who's wiv me?"
The crowd of orks let out a bellowing Waaagh! at the top of their lungs, and was followed by the mass dakka of guns and the stomping of boots as the orks marched out of the camp. The kicked up sand choked the air. Streaks of purple lightning began to break through the clouds, and thunder rumbled across the horizon like the Gods themselves were marching to battle.

Azragg drove past on his trukk, his fellow meganobz whooping the boyz into an ever greater frenzy. Cannily, Zzodzog managed to quickly leap onto the side of the trukk; a quick ride it was back to Junktown, but while clinging on he saw a familiar face amongst the clanking behemoths on board. It was Scruffa Orkfixa.

"Oi, Scruffa... you jammy git!" Zzodzog bellowed, as they crested the ridge. The Battle for Junktown was about to begin in earnest...

Zzodzog's Ambition - Mission 1: Rumblings in the Warp...

MISSION 1: FIRST CONTACT
750pts Battle Report
Chaos Daemons vs Orks

Set Up
As per the mission rules, the table is split into quarters, and an objective placed at the centre of each quarter (or as close to the centre as we agreed). We then rolled some dice to determine the number of each table quarter and the objective therein.
The Oil Rig was objective 1, the Boyz Hut was objective 2, the Tin Tower was objective 3, and the Junkyard was objective 4.

The orks deployed their army on the board using the random deployment method detailed in the mission's rules. I tried to set up my orks in a narrative way. The meganobz were to be placed by the oil rig, so I deployed them to look as if they were getting an oil change by their mekboy. The shootaboyz were set up as if rummaging through the junk pile in quarter 4, and so on. Not strategic, and just a little detail, but its these things that I enjoy.

The daemons would not be deployed, but would be arriving from the Warp on turn 1.

Daemons Turn 1

Plaguebearers arrive surrounding Objective 2.

The Daemons began to materialise from the Warp on the first turn. Everything was set to appear from the get-go, and most of the army arrived successfully. The only downside was the Plague Drones, who scattered into a nearby ork unit and went back into Ongoing Reserves.

The Plaguebearers appear on and around objective 2 securing it early and threatening the nearby mobs with their foul presence.

The Horrors, led by the Changeling, materialise in the centre.

The daemons of Tzeentch appeared in the centre.

The Changeling attempts to unleash his powers, but he must have woken up late and forgot his morning coffee, and all of his powers failed.

The Plaguebearers attempted to throw their defensive grenades at nearby mobs, killing 1 of the 'ard boyz.

Combat is met early by the Ork Meganobz.

As we agreed that units arriving from reserves could charge on the turn they appeared, the plaguebearers on the ground charged the meganobz.

Although the nobz managed to torch a few with their skorchas, the Herald of Nurgle issued a challenge, which was gladly accepted by the mek in the unit who didn't want any scratches on his newly-finished meganobz. Safe to say, the mek was slain, and to make things worse, the Meganobz lost two more of their number anyway, and fled the combat.

The orks turn their attention on the Plaguebearers who
wiped out the Meganobz.

Orks Turn 1

Unfortunately, the fleeing meganobz had zero faith in their new shiny suits, having not properly tested them yet, and fled from the table. 

The 'ard boyz advanced on the Plaguebearers who made a mockery of the Meganobz, while Zzodzog stands still and braces himself to fire his Shokk Attack Gun at them.

The Lootas exit the Tin Tower, ready to bring
their guns to bear next turn.

The big mek tries out his new gun in combat for the first time, and true to form it malfunctioned. The template was placed on the 'ard boyz instead, and naturally it didn't Scatter, destroying half of their number. 

The shootas boyz are roused from their Junkyard rummaging,
and advance towards the Horrors.

The shoota boyz unleash a volley on the horrors, but did little damage

In the assault phase, the 'ard boyz barely won a fight against the Plaguebearers, but the nurgle daemons show their true worth and hold firm. 

The shootaboyz assault the horrors, and after a flurry of blows manage to wipe them out. The blue horrors retaliate and cause plenty of wounds in return. 

The shootaboyz nob challenges the Changeling, inflicting
only 1 wound.

The newly recycled Horrors unleash a devastating Tzeentch's
Firestorm on the Lootas.

Turn 2

The horrors that were wiped out last turn got recycled and appeared near objective 3 to threaten the newly-emerged lootaboyz. 

The plague drones also arrive, buzzing into the Junkyard.

The horrors unleash their psychic powers against the lootas and kill over half of them.

The 'ard boyz barely hang on against the onslaught
of the Plaguebearers.

The combat between the plaguebearers and the 'ard boyz was pretty indecisive, with them still locked and causing minimal casualties. 

Although the orks won this round again, their numbers were dwindling in the face of overwhelming odds. The shootaboyz nob managed to see off the Changeling with his big choppa.

In the ork turn, the shootaboyz about-face and move towards the oil rig (objective 1).

While the lootas do nothing in this turn of shooting, the shootaboyz manage to wound one of the nearby plague drones.  The big mek turns his shokk attack gun on the plaguebearers on the roof of objective 2, but it scatters off the roof and does nothing.

In the assault phase, the plaguebearers on the ground finish off the 'ard boyz.

Zzodzog and Be'Lathor square off.

Turn 3

In the daemons next turn, the horrors fail their psychic test; the lootas are safe for another turn. 

The plaguebearers and their herald assault the big mek, with the big mek issuing a challenge to the herald in order to avoid the attacks of the other daemons. 

No damage is done between the two.

The shootaboyz, having defeated the daemons of Tzeentch,
move to claim the Oil Rig.

The ork shootaboyz advance closer to the oil rig, turning just enough to fire at the horrors, inflicting a few casualties. 

The lootas, meanwhile, retreat into the safety of building 3 again.

In combat, the plague herald wounds the big mek, but he holds firm.

Turn 4

The recycled 'ard boyz appear right near the Plague Drones
in the Junkyard.

The horrors use Tzeentch's Firestorm on objective 3 to try and rustle out the lootas, but it has no effect. 

In combat, the plague herald finishes off the big mek.

The penultimate ork turn sees the 'ard boyz recycle, moving onto the board near objective 4 to confront the plague drones. 

The shoota boyz finish off the nearby plaguebearers with a little help from the lootas, leaving only the herald alive, who begins to advance on their position. 

The 'ard boyz charge the plague drones, and inflict heavy casualties for little in return.

Be'Lathor assaults the Shootaboyz, who have
secured the Oil Rig.

Turn 5

The plaguebearers who died last turn recycle, but scatter off the board. The horrors on the ridge Firestorm objective 3 again, but again the attack does no damage.

The Herald on the ground charges the dug-in shootaboyz to attempt to dislodge them, and although he wins the combat, the shootaboyz hold their position. 

At the end of the game, the 'ard boyz claim their prize, a
great big pile of junk.

The 'ard boyz finish off the last plague drone.

In the final ork turn of the game, the lootas attempt to do something and shoot the plaguebearers on objective 2 opposite, but do no damage.

The 'ard boyz make an assault against the horrors nearby with a very lucky assault range (12"). Finishing off the horrors, they then make a 5" consolidation back towards objective 4. 

The Herald kills 2 more shootaboyz, but this is still not enough to dislodge them.

CONCLUSION

After turn 5, we decided to end the game. And what a game it was! While we had a few issues with regards to certain special rules, this game was designed to tell an opening narrative to our campaign. While some parts were a bit flimsy, it kind of works, and felt very hectic all the way through. 

Darren: What a fantastic game to kick off our narrative campaign with. It was small but it made its point. The random deployment added a really interesting element to the deployment and represented the mayhem of a suprise attack perfectly. As always, the Orks of Da Big Teef Klan were worthy opponents as I took them on in their home turf and the sneaky steal towards the end game really paid off. I’m really suprised at my Herald, Be’Lathor, cleaving his way through the Orks toughest units and clearing the gaming board of those pesky Meganobz in the opening phases. That 10pt Lesser Reward was so worth spending the points for. Ultimately, although I lost, it was a fantastic match-up and my foe cleverly outmanuveured me. Well done!

Jason: I enjoyed this game a lot, and it was a very worthy opening chapter for our new campaign. In many ways I prefer these smaller games, as every unit feels worthwhile, and losing even a few models can feel like a tragic loss. It was very touch and go from the ork perspective at the start. My opponent dropped in his Plaguebearers and they quickly saw off my strongest unit without so much as a scratch. And after my Shokk Attack Gun misfired I thought I was history. I was struck with the New-model Curse it seemed, until the rest of my army pulled it out of the bag somehow. And kudos to my canny opponent and friend who showed true sportsmanship throughout. Very enjoyable game!

After a poor start from the orks, they eventually managed to gather steam, and scrape Victory from the jaws of defeat. However, the forces of Chaos are not yet done with this world, and as the tattered remains of the Big Teff savoured their win, another Warp Rift burst forth amidst Junktown, and more legions of daemons poured forth...

A Warp Rift opens in Junktown, setting the scene for
our next mission, The Battle For Junktown!

To be continued...

Oddboyz, Nobz and Upstart Gitz...

Zzodzog
All it takes is 1 loose nut for everything to fall apart. Zzodzog's dreams of creating an all-powerful weapon have brought wreck and ruin to the homeworld of Da Big Teef. This is no bad thing, though, as orks love to fight, and this invasion may just prove to be the biggest and bestest fight the Big Teef ever had.
Here is Zzodzog himself. Pretty standard fare. He's not really up to par in terms of painting quality. My quality has taken a nosedive lately, due to lack of practice and also lack of patience. While I still enjoy the hobby, my painting habits have very much traded quality for speed, and its really starting to show. But, in light of this, I've not yet varnished all of these models, so I will come back to them after my friend's visit and finish them up proppa!



Skruffa and his Entourage

Here is my painboy Skruffa Orkfixa. He's the one who has worked the most with Zzodzog in creating all of the meganobz in their little warband. Zzodzog makes the suits, and Skruffa wires them in an presses 'Go'.

Some of you may remember those other models. I was a-rummaging through my bitz box one day when I happened upon them, and started to reminisce about my old ork army. I just had to fix these guys up and re-paint them. They will fill some varied roles, such as extra painboyz, mekboyz, orderlies or oilers if I take any, or as mission objectives in some scenarios at a later date.

Meganobz

Azragg is the leader of the Meganobz. They are actually part of a warband belonging to Zagablud (see below), but their suits were created by Zzodzog and Skruffa. For this squad, I wanted to rebuild and repaint my old Meganobz from my previous army. I had this plan on the backburna for a long time, and it just so happened GW released the new plastic ones at the same time, so it had to be done. Mixing up all the parts, kustomizin' and konvertin' away, I found I had 7 of the nasty buggers. Right now I have 4 with shoota/skorcha kombi-weapons, and 3 with twin-killsaws. Front and centre is Azragg himself. I also have 3 other meganobz on my shelf I painted up some years ago as Bad Moonz, and now I'm more tempted than ever to repaint them as Big Teef and have a full 10-ork unit of meganob killiness.

Upstart Gitz

Although Gorzag Irontoof is the Supreme Warlord of Da Big Teef, he's not without a bunch of lesser warbosses who lead smaller warbands. Here are 2 of these upstart gitz. Though not tested in battle yet, they soon will be, and may well prove themselves in the running for future Supreme Warlord.

To the left is Zagablud Toofgrinda. Zagablud was the warboss of my first ever ork army, and here he's been resurrected as a Big Teef warboss, with a brand new model and everything! I actually really like the lop-sided look this warboss has.

And here is the second, and somewhat less impressive, upstart git by the name of Gitkilla, and his pet squig, Chompy.

Both of these warbosses I wanted to create as a way of trying different loadouts on my leaders. I already have Warlord Gorzag, and despite being the unluckiest warboss who ever bossed, he's always been the one to lead my army. But now I can always swap him out for these cheaper options if I feel like a change.

And that about does it for my ork army for now. When this campaign gets in gear I'll try these new models out and see how they do on the battlefield, something that's always fun and interesting.

Buildings Update

So I've been working on these quite a lot lately (roughly 10am-6pm most days). They are coming on quite well, but right now I'm on the rivet stage. I must have applied at least 100 rivets by now, and I'm only half done. I'm doing the rest as I write this.

The fences are made out of a wire mesh rubbish bin I found in a department store. Its rigid enough to be solid but malleable enough to be useful for many things, and its the perfect size (and so is the mesh ;)). Now to finish off the rivets and get some paint on them...

Zzodzog's Ambition Campaign Prologue - First Contact

Campaign Prologue

Zzodzog strode out onto the roof of his workshop. The grim and jagged
Tower of Kontrapshuns loomed behind him as he approached the battlements.
Peering down into the valley below, he saw the town.

Junktown it was called. The pyres were roaring orange and red, and the
sounds of a settlement of greenskins rang out over the desolate lands
around; the fighting and yelling and laughing, the sounds of engines being
revved and shootas being shot, and choppas and fists and heads clashing.
It was like music to his one remaining ear.

Zzodzog hoised up a huge piece of kit onto his shoulder. It was his new
invention he liked to call the Supershokk Kannon, and it was built out of
his old Shokk Attack gun. About it were rigged some large power generators
that glowed blue and red in the night, and his subordinates scurried about
them twisting dials and turning knobs and hammering things and drilling
things... but the Big Mek grew impatient.

"Readyin' da first shot, now!" He bellowed. He grimaced at the ork town
below. So many pointless lives. Orks were in no short supply, and quite
frankly they were expendable, and would be the test subjects for Zzodzog's
new weapon. He braced his feet against the steel flooring, and leered;
"Turn it up ta elevun!" He said, and squeezed the trigger.

The huge kannon hummed and throbbed, but at first did little else. Until
with a mighty kick it crackled into life. The whirly bits whirled and the
zzappy bits zzapped. He aimed the hooverin' toob at the snotlings piled at
his feet, but as many of them scarpered he turned it on a large pile of scrap
to his side; anything that would get sucked up and sent through.
The gun vibrated more intensely, and Zzodzog tightened his grip. The humming
and whirring and crackling grew to deafening levels.
"MORE POWER!" He bellowed over the din. "TURN ON DA ORKZILLARY POWER!"
Many of his lesser mek's and oilers had long since sought cover, but those
brave (or stupid) few who remained did as their master ordered.

The town below was sent into an uproar. There was a mad scramble of orks as
they clamoured to escape the chaos. Snotlings, squigs, tools, jagged spears
of metal, and other random things started appearing in their midst.
Suddenly, at one end of the town, there was a crackling eruption of purple
lightning that lashed out around it, tearing into a nearby bunker.
Another blinding explosion of green electricity burst forth on the far side
of Junktown.

One of the mekboyz approached Zzodzog and tapped him on the elbow gingerly.
"Uh, boss? Is dat s'posed to 'appen?" He pointed down at the bursts of
lightning in the middle of the town. But before he knew anything more, a
deafening explosion and a brilliant white light engulfed him suddenly. He fell
to the deck and covered his head, and after the noise and electricity died down
he dared to look up. Big Mek Zzodzog was nowhere to be seen.

Zzodzog dropped his gun to the floor and rubbed his eye. After regaining his
senses he saw that he no longer stood on the roof of his workshop. All around
him was a ruckus. Orks punched and bashed and shoved their way around, trying
desperately to grab their guns and extinguish fires and finish their beers.
"Wotz you done, you maniak!" Came the sharp, raspy voice of Painboy Skruffa.
His buzzsaw was on and spinning madly in a threatening fashion, but Zzodzog
simply turned away from him.
"Dey iz comin'!" Shouted one ork running away.
"Dey iz 'ere, dey iz!" Yelled another as he scampered past.
Zzodzog's cybork eye was drawn to the far side of Junktown. Through the mad
throng of orks rushing here and there, he made out a large impact crater and
within it there throbbed a strobing yellow-green light, which crackled with
arcs of lightning, and its epicentre twisted and distorted inward like a whirl-
pool of purest blackness. It emitted an intense heatwave that warped the land
around it like it was bending the fabric of reality itself.
Zzodzog lowered his gaze to the lip of the crater, and from the black vortex
there issued forth a steaming river of yellow sludge which streamed and bubbled
and gurgled over the edges of the crater, and from its gooey midst he saw strange
things clawing and clambering out. They stood tall, and gangly, with long drooping
arms clutching at foul, darkened blades. They oozed with green and yellow puss,
and their faces were twisted and horned and bent into a grotesque cyclopean visage.
Others were a strange shade of pink, and hopped and bounced with their long
limbs to ensnare their foes, throwing pink and red flames about them and gnashing
their enormous bills or maws lined with needle-teeth.
Zzodzog grabbed a tankard from a passing ork and downed the lot in one gulp.
He soon felt better, but then his focus returned to the interloping creatures
and he huffed. He stooped to pick up his Shokk Attack Gun again. Unfortunately,
his untimely teleportation had left the power generators back up on his roof,
but his gun should still have enough back-up power to work. He just needed some
ammunition...

Hoisting his weapon, Zzodzog let out a loud bellow.
"Listen up, ya runts!" He shouted at the orks scrabbling about him. "Get yerselves
in check. We gotz a fight on our 'ands, 'ere. Wot you all scurryin' about like
mangy grots for? If yer act like grots, then I'll send yer through my Supershokk
Kannon and y'ull really 'ave somefink to be scared of!"

Junktown

Waaagh!

Waaagh! never changes...

Next week, my friend and semi-regular skumgrod will be staying for a few days of 40k goodness. We will be starting a campaign of sorts. We don't get often to battle much anymore, so we agreed to start a story between my Orkses and his Nurgle Daemons. But we needed a reason for these two armies to clash. At first we thought of perhaps a random ork foray into the Warp, or maybe the orks found an ancient Daemon weapon and unleashed seven shades of Warp as they tried to utilise it. But then I looked down at my painting desk and thought of something funnier and more amusing...

For Christmas I was gifted a Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun, and then it hit me. This gun opens up a rift to the Warp, through which snotlings are sent in order to appear in the enemy ranks to cause havoc. What if this particular mek was just insane enough to want a stronger gun? And so his experiments began, with catastrophic results. Snotlings went into the gun, but something far bigger, far more dangerous, and far more stinky came out!

This is the scene of our campaign - at the beginning anyway. Who knows where things will go as the year progresses and things get even crazier?! But for now, I wanted some suitable terrain. And seeing as this campaign takes place on an ork-held world, I needed some orky terrain. I decided to start with something simple, and built 2 "boyz huts" of different shapes.

This first is a more traditional orky abode, with a flat roof. It is not fully built yet, as I haven't added the battlements yet. Something you will notice is the weird blobby thing on the side. That will be a tent. This came about partly inspired by the orky building in Dawn of War, the "Pile o' gunz", but also from some Lord of the Rings terrain I saw a while back. I wanted to try something similar, so figured I may as well do it on these buildings to make them a little different to typical ork fare.

This second building is similar, but is much taller, and does not have a parapet roof. Instead the roof is a simple slope made out of the corrugated steel, with a few smokestacks on top for added height, and so the roof isn't too flat. This one also has more windows for fire-points to make up for the lack of a stand-on-able roof.

I have plenty of other projects on the go, but this will do for now. In the pipeline I have a 3rd building which will effectively be a tower built on top of a land raider (an immobile land raider), some lengths of wire-mesh fence, orky barricades, a half-painted oil tank, and some other random crap to throw around the board to make the place feel more lived-in. 

There's nothing like the promise of a long and brutal campaign to get the modelling juices flowing...