Two Mantic Orcs and a Dwarf

Walk into a bar....

No not quite. After the box of Orcs from Mantic Games had arrived at Kingsleypark Manor a few weeks ago (as reviewed here) I have finally managed to get round to painting a couple of the models

I debated for some time whether to go paint them with GW's Goblin Green or go for some other "radical" skin colour, but I bottled it and used it but with the dip, I've hopefully muted the green to a less cartoony colour. And okay, the shield design is a bit of a cop out as well but I always struggle to come up with something interesting and don't have the hand to paint a nice skull or wolf's head design.

This guys's teeth came out like a bit of a mouthful!

And the Dwarf?

Mantic Games Plastic Orc Ax Regiment Review

Well the Postie once again brought some Goodies to Kingsleypark Manor at the end of last week with the arrival of the new Mantic Games Plastic Orc Ax Regiment which I had ordered from those very nice chaps at Wayland Games.

The figures arrived in their plastic "figure case" which Mantic use to pack all their figures in and which they say can then be used to store the built up figures in afterwards. Not sure just how useful this box actually is, yes the built up figures will fit in the box but without some more packing (you get 2 soft foam sheets) there must be a danger of the figures rattling about and chipping your paintwork.

In the Orc Ax Regiment box you get 5 of these

And 1 command sprue

As can be seen from the picture the main figure sprue each contains 3 torso and leg models, 4 separate right arms, 2 left arms 3 heads and an Ax. A total of 15 models can be built up, 3 of which could be used to represent command figures

Not sure why Mantic have decided to mould 1 of the torsos with a head, when the others can use the optional heads. If they had all been moulded with the option of using different heads that would have greatly increased the variety of poses you could make. As it is you now have 5 bodies which will all have the same head.

The 3 optional heads on the main sprue

The command sprue contains 1 more optional head

Looks like he is wearing a Top Hat!

2 of the 3 torsos have plugs for fitting on the optional right and left arms again increasing the options of varying the figure poses. Again why Mantic felt it necessary to have 1 of the torsos with it's left arm already fixed instead of making it an optional I don't know, but it would have led to even more variety if they had done.

The plug let's you vary the position of the relevant arm

A word of caution though. If you are going to play about with the arm position, I'd recommend you widen the receiving hole in the arm as it is a very tight fit and if you are twiddling the arm about while attached to the peg you may end up snapping the peg (as happened in my case!)

So built up a Mantic Orc can look like this -

Detail on the figure is pretty good. No flash on any of the figures and minimal mould lines. The body is equipped with a mix of leather, chain and bits of plate armour, quite a ramshackle mix as you would expect from an Orc. All of the arms come with a shoulder guard, in some cases quite a detailed guard with moulded Orcish/Chaos faces, very nicely done.

The shields are plain and spiky but I quite like their shape, different from the usual round or kite shape shields. And as befitting an "Ax Regiment" the figures are all armed with Axes.

The Command Sprue allows you to convert 1 of your figures into a Drummer and also presumably a Leader figure although the weapon arm on the Command sprue was not holding a particularly big and impressive Ax! There is also a Standard which is a Dwarf head impaled on a pole. It would have been nice though to have had a cross bar on this in order to have the option of hanging a banner from it.

So the big question - How do they compare with a GW Orc?



Well as can be seen the pictures , the GW Orc is much more bulky all round, the head in particular being very large compared with his Mantic brethren and perhaps not surprisingly the GW weapons being suitably over sized. But I like the pose of the Mantic Orc, the crouched position gives a menacing feel to the figure whereas the GW have almost become caricatures of themselves, almost comic like with some of the facial expressions and bulging muscle development. But I suspect it will be for most people a matter of taste with one major proviso - price.

The Orc Ax Regiment is priced on the Mantic site at £13.99 (online retailers, such as Wayland Games will sell them cheaper) for which you get 15 figs which works out at about £0.94 per figure. The current GW box set, which contains 10 models for £18.00 direct from GW (again online retailers will probably sell them cheaper) or £1.80 per model, so almost double the price. And the more models you buy from Mantic in one order, the cheaper they get. for example, the Mantic Orc Detachment which contains 30 models is priced on their web site at £24.99 or £0.83 per model.

In my mind there is no reason why you can't have both in your Orc Army. The different makes could represent different tribes, or the GW Orcs being bigger models could represent Big 'Uns, like I say it will be up to your taste but I definitely like them and it will be interesting to see how Mantic develop the range. Next up will be their Orc Great Ax warriors and also their "Gore Riders" which are Orcs mounted on massive boar like creatures.

Just to add another contender to the mix, My mate GordonY bought some of the new Orcs from Wargames Factory and he picked these up at Carronade at a price of £15 for 24 figs or £0.63 per figure. If you clink on Gordon's link you will see some pictures of some built up models that he has done. No size comparison with a GW Orc but I suspect they are a slighter build and taller than the Mantic ones. I'll see if I can pinch one off him for a comparison pic.

One other thing that Mantic have done. On the sprues they have included some tiny figures, possibly too small to even be considered as Snotlings, to use the GW terminology, although that is their most obvious use.

Now who is this cheeky wee fella?

Nice wee fun figures, certainly there is enough of them to do a Snotling Swarm or just decorate the base of your Orc Boys.

So I would definitely recommend you have a look if you are an Orc player and looking for a cheaper option to bulk out your Army with. Two Thumbs Up!!

Favourite Units of Mine No. 8

Okay, your first reaction will probably be "What the **** are those??". And for those of you below a certain age that would be an understandable reaction. But for those of us gamers of a certain "vintage" these little fellas will have been the first exposure to an Orc, Citadel Miniatures style.

I've mentioned these guys briefly way back in my very first post, Early Beginnings, but felt it was time they had a post all to themselves.

In the very first Citadel Miniatures Catalogue (yes Dear Reader, I still have mine), these guys are listed as model numbers FF24 - Red Orcs in Chainmail with Swords, FF25 - Red Orcs attacking with Swords and FF26 Red Orcs in Plate Armour with Swords. And in 1979 Santa left several packs of these little warriors under the Christmas Tree.

These guys became the staple baddies in all the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD & D) games that I took part in whether as a player or as Dungeon Master. They were Orcs, they were Goblins, for a while they were Kobolds (until I got a pile of Kobold figures from Chronicle Miniatures, hands up those of you who remember that company??), they were lizards warriors, they were Bullywugs and so on. Any time I needed a pile of baddies these were the guys that were called upon. Of course, they weren't painted in those days, although I did make an initial stab at painting some - these were the days before Warhammer, however, so Orcs and Goblins were not green - the AD & D Monster Manual  actually described Orcs as being "brown or brownish green with a bluish sheen - highlighting their pinkish snouts and ears", but I had no idea how to do a "bluish sheen", not with enamel paints, so the few figures that did get painted were shades of Dark Brown (at one point I actually painted them flesh colour). But only a few got a lick of paint, the majority remained in their original bare metal.

By the time Warhammer was introduced, Citadel Miniatures had started changing their Orc Models to the larger, more gangly armed, bow legged creature that we are more familiar with today, so the Red Orcs really couldn't be called "Orcs" anymore so for all intents and purposes they became Goblins for evermore.

But still they didn't get painted.

Then when Warhammer released their 8th Edition in July 2010, and having been bitten with the Warhammer bug from listening to various podcasts, I got the wee guys out and started painting them. With the latest version of the rules seemingly favouring large infantry blocks, I figured these guys now had a part to play as a Goblin tribe, in any Orc and Goblin army that I could bring to the table. And by the end of August 2010, about 5 weeks later, all 50 of the Red Orcs that were but are now Goblins were finished, 30 years and 8 months after Santa had brought them.

They have now seen action on the Wargames table as a proper  fantasy, wargames unit. I've added a few command figures which came from the old Citadel Miniatures Goblin Raiding Party boxed set.

Although they are pretty basic sculpts, the Red Orcs that were but are now Goblins, still fit in reasonably well with the current crop of Night Goblin figures that GW produce, so I'm pleased to have got them finished, although kicking myself for having taking so long. So take a bow, boys and welcome finally to the Wargames World.

Gakamak’s Green Tide - Teaser Part 2

© Mantic Entertainment Ltd

 

For those of you who don't subscribe to the Mantic Games newsletter (why aren't you???) here is the latest teaser from Mantic showing the Krudger on Gore model.

As the saying goes a "picture says a 1000 words".

I just wouldn't want to meet that dude when he's grumpy

Gakamak's Green Tide

© Mantic Entertainment Ltd.

Oh Lordy Lordy! One mean looking Greenskin. This is the standard bearer figure that Mantic are releasing as part of their Orc Army bundle, entitled "Gakamak's Green Tide".

Can't wait to see more pics of these models, they are becoming very hard to resist (I have to keep telling myself - "I play Dwarfs, I play Dwarfs, I play Dwarfs!")

Check out the Orcy goodness at Mantic Games

Orc and Goblin Army Book Review

Reader Health Warning! I am a casual Warhammer Player and accordingly this review is therefore not an in-depth critique on whether the new Army Book will transform the Orcs & Gobbos into a Tier 1, smash all before them, broken, tournament winning horde of an Army but rather a review on the style of the new book, differences between this edition and the previous editions and how touch feely it is

Hurrah my shiny, shiny copy of the Army Book has arrived (along with my set of the O&G Magic Cards).

As has been well publicised the immediate and obvious change from previous editions is the fact that this book has got a hardback cover. Also, following the trend set by the 8th Edition rulebook, each page is in full colour, with the pages having a sort of beige parchment colour as if it is trying to give the impression that you hold in your hands some sort of ancient tome of wisdom. And GW appear (although time will tell) to have made a real effort with the binding of the book. Previous editions were notorious for the binding to break and pages coming loose. This book has a stitched binding and altogether looks much more secure. It also has 112 pages in this edition compared to 80 pages in the previous edition. Consequently it is slightly chunkier than the old edition, but does have the advantage of making it easier to spot on your shelf, well at least until the other Army Books start to be released as well.

Can you spot the new book, Dear Reader?

The size and the weight of the new book does appear to have caused much debate and gnashing of teeth with certain players (mainly tournament players it has to be said) who complain that the book being heavier and bulkier than the previous edition that this will be a major hassle to carry to tournaments along with all their other gear. Well here is the proof

The old Army Book weighing in at a respectable 12ozs (apologies to all our metric users)

The new tome weighing in at a back breaking 24ozs.

Almost double the weight!!! Get a life guys - are you mice or men? Get over it - just think of the muscle development you will get carrying it about. However, we do not condone the use of the Army Book as a weapon for thumping your opponent's bonce with if he is irritating you.

The artwork it has to be said, is a mixture of old and new, the front cover being the work of honorary Kirriemuir Wargames Club member, Dave Gallagher. And the cover artwork from the last few editions also appear in the book, but there is plenty of new colour artwork to add flavour to the book, some of which are previous black and white prints but now with added colour. Some old hacks will be disappointed that there is not a lot more new artwork but I don't mind it, it's sort of comforting seeing some of the old faces again.The pictures accompanying the troop and character descriptions are in the main sepia coloured prints (again the ancient tome theme). And what a difference a bit of colour makes to the Old World map that appears on page 13.

Jeremy Vetock has taken over the writing duties from Mat Ward and as a result there is a an obvious difference in style - and this is no bad thing. Through necessity the background and history of the Orcs and Goblins has to be repeated from previous editions (no re-booting of history here) but Jeremy recounts it in his own way and embellishes and expands on it with the result that the "A Bloody History" section of the book now runs to 12 pages as opposed to 9.

Of course, while the fluff is always a good read, regardless of whether it's new to you or not, it is the Bestiary that will be the centre of most players' attention - this has now been expanded from 22 pages to 40 pages and reflects not only the fact that there are new fun toys for the Orc and Goblin player to play with but also the fact that some of the army specific rules have changed, for example, Animosity. Still potentially crippling for an Orc and Goblin player, the table now has the possibility of units causing harm to friendly units. If the Animosity roll is failed and the player then rolls a 1 on the Animosity Table then the unit failing the test will strike D6 (2D6 if a horde) S3 hits on the nearest, friendly unit which also suffers from Animosity within 12", and which has 5 or more models. That unit in turn gets to inflict it's own D6 (2D6 for horde) S3 hits back. both units then waste the rest of their turn squabbling and licking their wounds. A roll of 6 on the Animosity Table, however, gives the unit a bonus move towards the nearest visible enemy unit which it must then declare a charge on if possible to do so. Will it make a huge difference to an Orc and Goblin player? Well I guess it'll come down to the number of "1's" they roll!!

Choppas give a +1 Strength bonus in the first round of combat to mounted as well as foot models (Go Boar Boyz Go!)

Big Un's- still a maximum of 1 unit per army unless Gorbad is the Army General in which case any number of Boyz units can be upgraded

Fear Elves - Elves now cause fear in all Goblin and Night Goblin units regardless of the size of the Elvish Unit.

Calling a Waaagh! has also changed radically. Whereas previously it added bonuses to a unit's Animosity roll, now it can only be called by a Army General Warboss, once he has declared a charge. For the rest of that turn every unit of 5 or more Orc Boyz, Savage Orc Boyz, Black Orcs, Boar Boyz, Savage Orc Boyz and Big 'Uns add +1 to their combat resolution (CR) and the General's unit adds +D3 to it's CR.

All of the old favourite units are there, Orc Boyz, Goblins, Night Goblins and so on, although the word on the street is that Savage Orc Boyz are now a better core choice than your standard Orc Boyz. But it's the new units that catch the attention, the Mangler Squigs and of course the absolutely fabulous Arachnarok Spiders. Whether these new units will be any good in a fight, only time and many battle reports from players will tell but, I think any Orc and Goblin player will be tempted to field an Arachnarok on the basis it is just a pimping good model.

The familiar villainous/ renowned (depending on your viewpoint) characters such as Azhag the Slaughterer, Skarsnik, Warlord of the Eight Peaks and Grimgor Ironhide are back but now they are joined by Wurrzag, da Great Green Prophet (Savage Orc), Snagla Grobspit and Gittilla da Hunter (both Gobbos). However, another big change is in the amount of Shiny Stuff that the Orc and Gobbo characters can call upon. Although they will have access to the magic items listed in the main rulebook, only 8 Army specific magic items are available in the new book and the familiar items such as the Battleaxe of the Last Waagh! have different effects (roll D6, add that number to the bearer's attacks and strength that round but reduce the bearer's WS by an amount equal to half of that die roll- under the previous book the bearer's attacks and strength were increased by the rank bonus of the unit he was in).

Radical changes in the Waagh Spell list as well, for example, Brain Bursta is now a spell of Da Big Waaagh as is Foot of Gork (although the boosted version of the spell can have drastic consequences for the Shaman's own troops as on a roll of a 1, Gork stomps on a friendly unit, picked by the opponent!). However, the spells do retain that reckless, chaotic mayhem that Orc and Goblin Shamans are notorious for.

There a full 16 pages of photographs showing various painted models from the GW range, some of which appeared previously in the rule book, others in the March edition of the White Dwarf, but handy, I suppose being at least all gathered now in the one place.

The final section of the book, deals with the Army list choices which, of course now reflect the changes made by 8th Edition with regard to army composition. Snotlings now become a core choice, Orc Boyz are now 6 points per model as opposed to 5, Arrer Boyz now 7 points as opposed to 6, Goblin Wolf Riders are now 10 points as opposed to 12. Orc Boar Boyz are now a 16 points a model, down from 22, although they are no longer automatically equipped with spears and shield (4 pts in total). Trolls, however, are now classed a special unit rather than rare and are 5 points cheaper at 35 points. The Goblin Rock Lobber now becomes a rare choice and is now 85 points as opposed to 70 points and it now costs an extra 10 points to add an Orc Bully to the crew (as opposed to 5 previously). The Arachnarok is a rare choice (no surprise there!) and it's base cost is a hefty 290 points.

At the end of the book is the Handy Summary chart giving all the stats of the characters, heroes, shamans and troop types. There also a couple of colour templates for the Foot of Gork spell and the Fallen Giant template. Sensibly, GW have made these available for download from their webpage.

I have only scratched the surface of the changes made to the Army by the new book. Orc and Goblin players are going to have a fun time experimenting with these changes and no doubt many words will be written in the forums until there is a consensus on the optimum build - but then again maybe the Orcs & Gobboes are too disparate  for there ever to be an optimum build and surely that can be no bad thing.

Overall impressions. The book is lovely, and follows the high production quality GW set itself with the release of the 8th Ed rulebook. So, it's heavier than the old book - no big deal, it should hopefully be a lot more hard wearing as a result. Listening to the 2 Bens from the Bad Dice Podcast with their views on the changes made by the new book (see my earlier post - Bad Dice Podcast Episode 57 ) they were of the view that the book is pretty tight rules wise and didn't give rise to any immediate rules queries.

For Orc and Goblin players it is, of course, a must have and although people may baulk at the £22 price tag, the production quality alone justifies that price tag and it is possible to get the book cheaper from various independent retailers.

For the non-Orc and Goblin players, it's a question of whether you are like myself, and just like to have all of the available Army Books because they look so smart on the book shelf or whether you have a mate who plays Orc and Goblins that you can borrow it from every now and then.

Tournament players presumably will want to get the book in order to follow Sun-Tzu's maxim  "“Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.” - Yeah so the saying goes - never did me any good!

He's Big, He's Mean and He's Green.......

© Mantic Entertainment Ltd



I play Dwarves in fantasy, from my earliest forays with Reaper rules, to Warhammer 1st Edition and subsequent editions, I even used them when I briefly had a copy of Gary Chalk's Fantasy Warlord rules.

But when you see the latest stuff about to come out from those wonderful guys at Mantic Games, even the longbeard in me has to go .....wow these look awesome!

I owe a lot to GW and Citadel Miniatures in setting me down that miniature wargaming path that I have taken over the last 30 years and although I know there are plenty of people who bad mouth them and don't like the "Evil Empire" I think many of us have a lot to thank GW for and will continue to support them by buying their products.

But even the GW Fanboy that I am has to wonder if GW have maybe gone and shot themselves in the foot with their latest pricing escapade. With the latest releases of the Savage Orcs etc, GW, have for some reason cut the number of Orc Boyz that they sell in their box from 16 to 10, yet have maintained the price of the box at £18. Okay, you get a helluva load of bits in the box (130) with which to be able to customise your Orc Boy so that no two in the unit will look alike but at the end of the day you will still be able to only build 10 Boyz. Mantic on the other hand are boxing 30 of their Orc warriors for a price of £24.99. Okay, perhaps there will be less variety but if my arithmetic holds up I work that out to be a cost of 83p a figure compared to GW's of £1.80 a figure.....

Mantic's philosophy is well publicised - Building Big Armies at affordable prices and certainly with this new release you can see that they are maintaining that philosophy.

They are available for pre-order now with their release date scheduled for 25 April 2011. Click on the Mantic link above or on the Wayland Games banner at the top of the blog for more info.

Now I must go and reassure my Dwarves that I have not fallen to the call of the Waaagh!!!