Da Skwad and 2021-22 Ramblings

 Here we have "Da Skwad", a squad of Orcs ready to do battle in the "nightmare future of the 41st Millenium" or perhaps sooner.  These lovable creatures are from Vanguard Miniatures' "Defeat in Detail" range, linked here. 

 The race of "not Orks" is called "Skinners" in the Defeat in Detail universe.  I confess to reading a ton of Dan Abnett books when I was in the Army and while I'm not a 40k player, I got hooked on the 40k universe and some of the storylines.  I had always dreamed of recreating some of the Gaunts Ghosts battles and other battles from the 40k and Warhammer Fantasy world especially in the books I've read.

'Eavy metal with some sort of crude bolter / grenade launcher combi.

  

I'm still searching for a good set of skirmish rules to play with these guys but much of the fun will be doing the "historical" research into sci fi or other skirmish rules.  I absolutely owe Ski a playthrough of his "Stardust: Ground" rules (and still insist he make them into a WWII set! and sell to Osprey)

So what do we have to say for ourselves?

Not too much blog activity.  2021 was a pretty slow year for gaming and blogging, despite the lofty ambitions, so I opted against a 2021 look back and am not doing a 2022 look forward, despite still having megalomaniacal plans for the upcoming gaming year :) I will say that according to the Tier I, II, and III priorities, I did accomplish alot in terms of painting.  the 10mm SYW project (Tier I) was all but finished, 10mm Napoleonics (Tier II) took center stage as I rebased all my Napoleonics on 30mm squares and touched up paintjobs.  The resulting French have 20 x "units" that can literally serve as Battalions, Regiments, Brigades, or heck even Divisions! (looking at you, Absolute Emperor).  Tier III got alot of attention with the Ancients Project finishing the initial purchase run but there are legions of legions behind them waiting to be painted.  

If you must know, Eylau Plans are still going forward, though not for February (I am buying all the Russians), more Seven Years War and AWI plans being hatched (Honours of War, Volley and Bayonet, Post of Honour for SYW, and perhaps, Live Free or Die for AWI coming to the table soon!).  Plans on completing the Ancients project and finding my favorite Ancients rules for 15mm, and starting a NEW 10mm project this year!  Lots of exciting things happening at Sound Officers Call so stay tuned.  Hoping not to be derailed too badly by normal life this year but you never know.  I figure if I dont put it in writing, lots of great stuff is bound to happen.  Right?

And no Orc "unit" would be complete without da boss - he's bigger, badder, has more teeth, and will jump into the fray just for fun.

da boss.  He had goblins paint the pea dot camo...

I tried to paint an Orc skull on the bottle on his back but it looks more like Wilson...

What Orc horde would be complete without an Army to fight against?  Here are some rag-tag planetary defense forces that look a bit cooler than the Imperial Guard troops being sent to fight along side them.

PDF Platoon Command

The PDF troops are from a Khurasan collection and if you thought they had a distinctly Soviet vibe to them you'd be correct!  I am painting them with the Soviet painting set from Vallejo.

Orcs!  Light em up!

Heavy Weapon 

L to R a rocket propelled grenade gunner, 2 x AGLs, and some "riflemen" with "standard template construction" lasguns. (sorry couldn't help myself)

Right now I have 6 fireteams of PDF troopers waiting to defend the planet from Orc invasion.  They have no heavy weapons or vehicles, just organic light support weapons and grenade launchers.  The Orcs have some decent, albeit short ranged firepower.  

So as stated, I'm shopping around for some skirmish rules to use with these troopers and of course painting up lots more Orcs to square off against the PDF.

On the gaming front, Ken was over yesterday and we played a re-made blast from the past, HEROQUEST.  This is a remake by Avalon Hill of a MB/Games Workshop classic from my childhood, something I've bought and owned twice in my adult life and sold off.  Imagine my surprise when i opened it on Christmas Day!  So we played the first quest on Sunday and it was alot of fun, even playing as Zargon, the GM/DM.

Ken's Barbarian squares off against yet ANOTHER Orc, while the wizard in the other room deals with a goblin running around.

"Drear Warriors" (formerly Chaos Champions in the original HQ game) mix it up with the dwarf after slaughtering the barbarian...