Vanguard Skinnerz Crushers!

Latest Vanguard Skinners on the table!  These are my Crushers which I will use as Supa Stompas with my orcs. Great models, and in my opinion a much better model in this role than the old Games Workshop versions I had used until now. They look like they could actually move for a start!

Also interestingly (to me anyway) if I recall correctly my suggestion of "Crusher" was what Ben went with when he was trying to think of a name for these.

Rear view.

Close up!

Here's one compared to the old Supa-Stompas or Mekboy Gargants from Epic Space Marine (left), Epic Armageddon (middle) and of course the Skinnerz Crusher (right). The first two are rather heavily converted, with the middle one given one of the mean looking buzz saw arms which was spare from the Skinners Crushers - instead of the silly hammer it came with.

And rear view with order reversed.

Great models, get them here at Vanguard Miniatures!

Oh my goodness! - Plastic Skinnerz and Humans!

Hard to believe, but after a very long wait an order of plastic Skinnerz and Humans has arrived!

What's the story here? These were commissioned by figure designer Ben Skinner (whose name was given by popular vote to the Skinnerz race he produced!), in an Indiegogo campaign a very long time ago.  It was done with a very noble motive, with much support from the 6mm sci-fi community (in particular Epic players), with the aim of producing a basic starter box set in affordable plastics for new players to 6mm sci-fi. Humans and ape-like barbarians with basic fighting vehicle for each. It was done at the time Games Workshop stopped producing Epic (they have since stopped producing a heck of a lot of things and who knows where they will end up).

Ben had no problems in delivering all of many superb metal models he designed on time, but he ran into a series of unfortunate problems in producing the plastics. This included being overcharged by companies in the UK, then molds getting lost in China, warped product being delivered and so on. It was a series of disasters. I understand it really got to the poor chap and he ended up very stressed and unwell. Really I would have completely understood if he had just said sorry it had gone very wrong due to factors outside his control and dropped the plastics. I mean you have to accept when you fund these things that there are no guarantees with new business ventures like this, and I would have totally accepted it as part of the risk and just been happy that we ended up with all the metal ranges we had helped fund. 

As it turned out Ben eventually sold the company and all rights to the models to Vanguard Miniatures recently, who fortunately are now producing the excellent Defeat in Detail range and expanding it! And Ben is still sculpting for them so thank goodness for that. Looks like a very positive arrangement.

That's the backstory, but Ben has persevered over almost 3 years, and eventually got these things made, and hence this big box of them arrived today against all expectations! Woohoo!

The sprues contain 16 humans and 16 aliens, plus a vehicle for each race. The humans have two heavy weapon troopers, and the aliens 3 heavy weapon troopers. There is also an optional mortar type gun which could be used by either side or mounted on one of the vehicles. They also come with 25mm round plastic bases.

View from back of the sprue.

And here the figures are. I think the alien Skinners and both vehicles are great. The humans are a bit spindly for my liking, but not as bad as I was expecting in terms of strength. Still they are kind of like some of the early plastic GW Epic figures in being rather delicately proportioned for plastic models so won't take a lot of rough handling (not that you should be doing that with 6mm figures anyway of course but you know it will happen!)

There were also a number of special metal upgrade options made for the vehicles. I got the anti-aircraft versions, and here are the guns for both humans and aliens. Very nicely done. There were also artillery pieces made but I didn't get those.

So overall I'm pretty happy to finally get these and I'm looking forward to painting some up. In particular I love having the plastic vehicles, which I find so much more convenient than metals. Kind of worth buying the sprues just for these for my own purposes anyway. Plus I needed some more orcs - always need more orcs!

I'm not sure if John at Vanguard will be stocking these plastic models anytime soon or not, but good to have these! So many thanks to Ben and John and I'll get on with some assembly and painting...


(Edit) And as requested in comments, here are some size comparison pictures with old Epic figures!

Epic 4K: Speed Freaks vs Xar'ka Tau

After the previous glorious ork victory, I decided to give the Speed Freaks a run. Andrew turned up with a new Tau armoured list. We also used a new chess clock I had bought to help speed the turns along which worked nicely :)

Here's my Speed Freaks list, not as many skorchas as I'd like, but all I had! I also tried lots of Mekboy Speedstas.

3995 POINTS
Burning Death Speed Freeks (NetEA Tournament Pack 2013)
==================================================

BLITZ BRIGADE (BIG) [385]
2 Mekboy Speedsta, 6 Gunwagon, 2 Flakwagon, Nobz

BLITZ BRIGADE (BIG) [385]
6 Gunwagon, 2 Mekboy Speedsta, 2 Flakwagon, Nobz

KULT OF SPEED [200]
4 Skorcha, 4 Warbuggy

KULT OF SPEED [200]
4 Skorcha, 4 Warbuggy

KULT OF SPEED [200]
4 Warbuggy, 4 Skorcha

SPEED FREAKS WARBAND [200]
3 Boyz, 4 Trukks, Nobz, 4 Skorcha

SPEED FREAKS WARBAND [200]
3 Boyz, 4 Trukks, Nobz, 4 Skorcha

SPEED FREAKS WARBAND (BIG) [425]
6 Boyz, 8 Trukks, 2 Nobz, 8 Skorcha, 2 Stormboyz

WARBIKE OUTRIDERS [150]
5 Scout Warbikes

WARBIKE OUTRIDERS [150]
5 Scout Warbikes

WARBIKE OUTRIDERS [150]
5 Scout Warbikes

BLITZ BRIGADE (BIG) [350]
8 Deth Kopta, 2 Mekboy Speedsta

BLITZ BRIGADE [200]
2 Flakwagon, 2 Gunwagon, Mekboy Speedsta

BLITZ BRIGADE [200]
Mekboy Speedsta, 2 Flakwagon, 2 Gunwagon

BLITZ BRIGADE [200]
Flakwagon, 3 Gunwagon, Mekboy Speedsta

BLITZ BRIGADE [200]
Flakwagon, 3 Gunwagon, Mekboy Speedsta

LANDA [200]

Andrew's Tau brought the Tau Armoured forced along. Orca's were subbed in to represent Scropionfish.

Tau Xar Ka, Mechanised Strike Group, [4 Mechanised Infantry Companies with Distributed Armoured Company]

Mech Cmd Cadre, 2 Hammerheads (Railguns) + Command Node, 6 Fire Warriors + Ethereal (50 points), 3 Devilfish, Skyray [500] 

Mech Cadre, 2 Hammerheads (Railguns) + Command Node, 4 Fire Warriors, 2 Devilfish, Skyray [375] 

Mech Cadre, 2 Hammerheads (Railguns) + Command Node, 4 Fire Warriors, 2 Devilfish, Skyray [375] 

Mech Cadre, 2 Hammerheads (Railguns) + Command Node, 4 Fire Warriors, 2 Devilfish, Skyray [375] 

Recon Group, 3 Tetras, 2 Piranha TX-42s [150]

Fire Support Group

2 Scorpionfish + Shas'o Commander (75 points) [475]

2 Scorpionfish + Command Node [425]

Recon Group, 3 Tetras, 2 Piranha TX-42s [150]

Light Armoured Support

Recon Group, Tetras, 4 Piranha TX-42s [150]

Recon Group, Tetras, 4 Piranha TX-42s [150]

Recon Group, 3 Tetras, 2 Piranha TX-42s [150]

Air Caste Support

2 Tiger Sharks [175]

6 Gun Drones [100]

2 Barracudas [150]

2 Barracudas [150]

Turn 1

Andrew won a Strategy Roll for deployment, and chose corners. Here's my deployment in bottom left corner, struggling to fit all the Freaks in!  Scout warbikes strung out along centreline. (In centre top is the chess clock).

Tau is set up deep in their own corner, with a few scouts forward on the short table edge.

Overview of the table.

First photo taken after first few activations. The ork screen has been knocked back by guided missiles, and I'm struggling to do much in return.

Three smashed ork formations...

But the orks keep on attacking...

...and keep being knocked back. Another Kult of Speed is nuked as drones are dropped off by Tiger Shark bombers.

The Big Warband speeds forward and also takes heavy casualties.

Slightly desperate landing attempt with Landa... into range of a Skyray, Tiger Shark AA and fighters.

All the Landa's AA turrets miss the fightas...

And the Landa is destroyed (just) along with the Kult of Speed it is transporting...

End of turn and orks have suffered very heavy casualties already. And units in the backfield have been doubling just to try and get in range.

Fortunately Andrew had brought along some nice brew to alleviate the pain. Epic Armageddon beer, and Epic Observer beer which suited the theme of all those annoying markerlighting Tau observer units!

Turn 2

Next turn, and the Orks wipe out a Tau recon unit and take the centre town.

And Orks engage and wipe out the Tau drones in the bottom right of the field.

But return fire drives back even more ork units.

The Tau take the opportunity to pick on all the Ork light vehicles, using their massed anti-personal fire to good effect.

Tau get cocky and advance armoured units into the centre of the ork line and keep knocking over the infantry and light vehicles.

I've destroyed most of the Tau screening units, but my army is shattered. 8 formations that are mostly down to single units, other formations eliminated and only my 4 gunwagon formations left....

Given the hopeless situation I concede and race away to fight another day...

Conclusion

Terrible game for the orks! The corner deployment meant I had a long way to drive to reach the Tau, and yet I had to engage or be shot to pieces. However I could have avoided feeding my forces in so piecemeal and having them gunned down one by one. I should have concentrated and then engaged in turn 2 or 3 rather than doing what I did, which was to attack aggressively right from the start. Some non-intelligent target selection from me at times to. Still nevermind, all a learning process! And as the orks say:

"Orkses never lose a battle, if we win we win, if we die we die fightin' so it don't count. If we runs for it we don't die either, cos we come back for annuva go, see!"

Vanguard Skinnerz Shuttles

New additions for my Epic Orcs, Skinnerz Shuttles from Vanguard miniatures! 

These are huge hefty models, almost 10cm long, and 7cm wide. Just the thing to plunge hordes of Orcs into the middle of battle! 

The models also come with an upright tail piece, but I left those off from my models as it will make them easier to store and I thought they looked ok without it. I also added a slightly different turret I had lying around to the front turret position just for the hell of it.

The front hatch can be glued into the open position, which I did with one of the shuttles. Once I get some of the Vanguard Skinnerz Infantry I'll add a couple running down it! 

Epic 4K: Defence of Orkville

My Ork hordes made an appearance in a game against Andrew's Tau the other night. 4000 points again which seems to be a good size to get a bit of variety, but still small enough to play in an evening.

For my army I chose many small units (pop-corn style army), with the average points value of detachments being just over 220 points. 

4000 POINTS
Ghazgkhull Thraka's War Horde (NetEA Tournament Pack 2013)
==================================================

KULT OF SPEED [200]
2 Warbuggy, 4 Skorcha, 2 Warbike

KULT OF SPEED [200]
2 Warbuggy, 4 Skorcha, 2 Warbike

KULT OF SPEED [200]
8 Skorcha

KULT OF SPEED [200]

6 Warbike, 2 Warbuggy

KULT OF SPEED [200]
6 Warbike, 2 Warbuggy

BLITZ BRIGADE [200]
2 Flakwagon, 2 Gunwagon, Oddboy

BLITZ BRIGADE [200]
2 Flakwagon, 2 Gunwagon, Oddboy

MEKBOY STOMPAMOB [500]
3 Stompa, Supa Stompa

MEKBOY GUNZMOB [175]
5 Big Gunz, Oddboy

MEKBOY GUNZMOB [175]
5 Big Gunz, Oddboy

MEKBOY GUNZMOB [175]
5 Big Gunz, Oddboy

MEKBOY GUNZMOB [175]
5 Big Gunz, Oddboy

STORMBOYZ WARHORDE [150]
6 Stormboyz

STORMBOYZ WARHORDE [150]
6 Stormboyz

WARBAND (BIG) [350]
4 Nobz, 12 Boyz, 4 Grotz

FIGHTA SKWADRON [250]
5 Fighta Bomba

FIGHTA SKWADRON [250]
5 Fighta Bomba

FIGHTA SKWADRON [250]
5 Fighta Bomba

Andrew took a double Manta force, with plenty of mounted infantry and a tonne of stealth suits.

Tau Vior'la, v 1.7

Shas'o Tio've [Commander's Battle Group]

Manta, Command Bridge, Shas'o [675 points]

FW Cadre, 6 Fire Warriors, Ethereal, Cadre Fireblade, 3 Devilfish, Skyray [400]

FW Cadre, 6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish, Skyray [325]

Recon Group, 3 Tetras, 2 Piranhas [150]

Shas'el Kavaal [Sub-Commander's Strike Group]

Manta [625]

FW Cadre, 6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish, Skyray [325]

Recon Group, 3 Tetras, 2 Piranhas [150]

Recon Group, 3 Tetras, 2 Piranhas [150]

Her'ex Shar'vre Tio've [Cloak Commander's Battle Group]

Stealth Group, 6 Stealth Suits, Cadre Fireblade [250]

Stealth Group, 6 Stealth Suits, Cadre Fireblade [250]

Stealth Group, 6 Stealth Suits, Cadre Fireblade [250]

Stealth Group, 6 Stealth Suits [225]

Stealth Group, 6 Stealth Suits [225]

Turn 1

Here's the setup, a few garrisons on each side, and everything else behind. Tau favouring their centre, orks their right flank.

Here's my new resin Orkville buildings in the centre of the table. I'll post some better pics once they are completed, still need to add glyphs and probably rust them up a bit more! Apparently some English company made these many years ago, but they are now out of production. I've never even heard of them before but someone sold them on a local auction site. Awesome find!

The Tau teleport Stealth suits to occupy Orkville and the nearby crater field. My Ork Scorchers move up to burn them out, and manage to rout the first formation in the buildings.

One of the Mantas advances. I open fire with an overwatching Gunzmob and manage to do 2 points of damage to it. My plan is to avoid firing at the Mantas but I thought this one was about to shoot the Gunzmob so there was nothing to lose. It instead blasts the Stormboyz garrison and kills all but one of them.

My Big Warband engages and destroys a Stealth Suit formation that had taken three blast markers from teleporting.

The other Manta advances and shoots at my Supa Stompa, and my Fighta Bombas knock out a Skyray AA tank and Devilfish from a Firewarrior Formation.

A Tau Firewarrior formation reoccupies Orkville.

I move up more reinforcements, knocking back some advancing Tau formations.

A Blitz Brigade knocks out a Skyray from the central Firewarrior formation.

Heavy ork attacks also occur on their right flank, and the Tau are driven back further.

Attacks on the ork left are also successful.

End of turn.

Turn 2

Kult of Speed and Blitz Brigade break two formations on the Tau left flank, avoiding shooting at the Manta.

Tau break a couple of formations and then the Stormboyz supported by Kults of Speed close assault the Firewarrior detachment and destroy most of them, retaking Orkville.

The Big Warband rolls onwards through the craters and destroys another stealth formation.

More air attacks reduce Tau formations to scattered individuals.

A Kult of Speed races up the centre and shoots a broken Stealth formation, which is reduced to a single unit.

Last intact Tau Firewarrior formation manages to retake the Tau left flank by destroying a Kult of Speed, but it is then hammered by Fighta Bombas.

End of turn.

Turn 3

Remaining Tau formations except Mantas are broken in exchanges of fire. The Mantas remain virtually unscathed but cannot prevent the remaining Ork formations from winning 2-0 with Take and Hold and Defend the Flag objectives.

Conclusion

A successful outing for the Orks, clearly inspired by their new accomodation! The Tau may have been a little optimistic with initial teleports and the attempted holding of Orkville, but difficult to defend against the speed of this Ork force. Tau couldn't knock out the small ork formations quickly enough and the Mantas were left unsupported as all other Tau units were smashed. Tau AA being spread out also meant my Fighta Bombas had some better targets than would have otherwise been the case.  Skorchas also appear to be an nice solution to Andrews favouring of scout formations! I'll have to paint up more of them :)