E:A Orks - Taktuz's Legion

[orangesm]

Taktuz’s Legion – 4th Warhorde of Marghuz’s Fiefdom

Taktuz’s Legion is the name of the Epic Ork Army I am building largely as an army for me to introduce people to the game. Since I have begun work on a region of space in which all my 40k universe forces are located I decided to make this force represent one of the many Ork Hordes the Imperium has to fight. There are two small Ork ‘Empires’ that help to separate the remaining Imperial Worlds from those controlled by the Apostles of the Word. This force is from the northern region of space refered to as Marghuz’s Fiefdom. The Warboss for this horde is Genrail Taktuz of the Blood Axes who finds himself not quiet big enough to take control of one of the worlds in the Fiefdom at present. He believes that with enough Luck he can make it there, so every Ork in his army must wear blue, but Taktuz is also no idiot by Ork standards and has had any Humans with lots of shine metal brought to him to be given the chance to ‘advise’ him. Recently one human has taken on the mantel of Advisor and allowed Taktuz to move beyond just a simple Warboss to become a Genrail. Taktuz has decided that learned Orks are better Orks and has even ‘secured’ trading rights with a few ‘umans.

Taktuz’s immediate lieutenants are: Kolonel Oldz leading the Blo Boarz Squadron, Kolonel Ongrode leading the ‘oldin’ force, and Doc MkMek chief Mekboy. Taktuz’s Legion is divided much along these lines with any boyz crazy enough to get into the air under Kolonel Oldz, the slowest under Ongrode, and big gunz under MkMek. Taktuz likes to jump in a Battlewagon or Gunwagon (all looted Rhinos) and zoom at the enemy, leadin’ from the front as the Advisor tells him. Taktuz takes with him a band of boyz, bikez, and buggiez.

So to assembling and painting I go.

First shot of the workbench and a close up of the first stand of boyz.

[Rikka Rakka]

Any Epic gets love from me! Orky Epic more so! Good luck!

[firestorm40k]

Any Epic gets love from me!

Seconded!

Looking forward to seeing this army come together; hopefully it'll give me a bit of inspiration when I can finally get round to painting my Epic Ork stuff, which currently languishes in storage. That'll be about 10 years then...

Anyway, looking forward to watching this one, OrangeSM!

[orangesm]

The GW Order

All right so last Wednesday my 194 USD GW order of Ork Epic arrived form GW (and my order of OOP IG Heavy Troopers for the 333rd from ChaosOrc). So having already started on the Big Warband I continued to work on it on and off and finished it up today.

Kolonel Ongrode’s Oldin Force

It is the largest single formation in the 3000 point army and may even be added to with 4 Stompas waiting in the wings to be assembled and painted. Right now the formation has 4 Armored, 4 Light Vehicles, 4 Nobz, 12 Orks, and 8 Grots (440 pts). Adding the 4 Stompas will bring the number of Armored Vehicles up to 8. But I can also take the 4 Stompas as their own Mekboy Stompa Mob and use them to garrison objectives before the game even starts. Right now the Big Warband cannot garrison because of its 2 Flak Wagons. For now it will not have the Stompas.

Up next - Landa & Stormboyz or Stompa Mob (possible with some 333rd for a change of color).

[Rikka Rakka]

Surprising minimal interest in this! Maybe its true that few care for epic nowadays?

These are looking nice though! Obviously there will be more Wow factor when you get onto the larger stuff!

[Major_Gilbear]

Gosh, I didn't even spot this log in here! I am glad to see another Epic army in the making though, always loved that game .

Looks a pretty good start Orangsm, are these going to be any particular Klan ?

[orangesm]

Surprising minimal interest in this! Maybe its true that few care for epic nowadays?

Half true, in my other Epic Army log I do not have a ton of replies either (around 60 with probably 20-30 being me showing what I had done) but it has over 4,000 views. I think part of it may be that a lot of people do not paint/play Epic themselves and so do not have much to say.

Looks a pretty good start Orangsm, are these going to be any particular Klan ?

Thank you, they are mainly Blood Axes, but Taktuz is not above trying to get as much luck as possible so the force is largely in blue. The fiefdom has had human contact for a long time and even uses human vehicles (the Rhino) as the basis for a lot of their vehicles. Taktuz's Mounted Orks are all in converted Epic Razorbacks either being used as Battlewagonz or Gunwagonz.

[Major_Gilbear]

Mmm, nice. You don't see Bloodaxes much in Epic anymore ('cept when somebody tries to make an army out of the old SM box contents...).

[orangesm]

Da Herk & Stormboyz

So in the past two days I painted up ‘Da Herk’, an Ork Landa and its cargo of 10 stands of Stormboyz. These are actually separate formations in Epic so I can use ‘Da Herk’ for other units if I choose. Yes I realize that one of the stands is backward – sorry. But you now get to see their backpacks. Also the infantry is of course small so detail is lost – they have Regal Blue uniforms with Bleach Bone ‘camo’ stripping in it.

The plan in game for this pair is to strike either on one of the enemies flank or in their rear either supporting Taktuz’s Warband and the Speed Freaks or by slipping in later in the game to secure an objective. If for example on turn two I think they can secure the Blitz objective ‘Da Herk’ and the Stormboyz will assault it and then on turn 3 the Stormboyz would press out from the Blitz and either secure another objective or screen ‘Da Herk’.

Back to Major_Gilbear’s question – rules wise it is a standard Ork army based on Ghazgkhull’s War Horde. It is however themed to have some human influence and even some human hulls in there.

Next? good question.
I am holding off on Taktuz’s Warband until I get the additional Rhino hulls. On the priming plate are 2 IG infantry companies, 4 Stompas, and a Gargant – probably start painting those and assemble the Speed Freaks Thursday.

[firestorm40k]

Nice work - I like the painting style, they look dark, gritty, and battle-worn, which to my mind Orks should. Keep the updates coming!

[scrubout]

Aye, my apologies orangesm, I love your epic stuff and am eager to post my own but other projects need to come first.

I'll try and stop by more! I like da landa. Great detail with the white/red checkers.

-scrubout

[orangesm]

Today I got the 4 Stompas painted (I was somewhat lazy) and got the Speed Freaks assembled. These guys are there to back up the ‘Oldin Force and garrison if it suits them. The last of the footsloggers left to paint is the Gargant and I will try to get it done tomorrow.

Mekboyz Stompa Mob


Unpainted Speed Freaks

Sometime in the coming days I will be ordering the stuff to finish up the Leviathan in my other thread and the Rhinos to convert for the Warlords Warband. 3 Formations left to paint for the Orks other than as of yet unordered Fightas from FW. Until such time as I order them (with Eldar vehicles for Epic Eldar), which may be in the near future!

A shot of the Fightas that I have for AI that are part of the same Ork Sqwadron.

And a work bench shot.

[firestorm40k]

Ahh, a workspace shot, it's a proper hobby log now!

I'm really impressed at the rate at which you're getting this army done, OrangeSM, they look great too. Well done!

[Easy E]

Keep up the good work spreading the word about Epic. It's a shame that you need two of your own armies so you can play. However, I think it is fairly common in most non-GW wargames.

I think the Stompas need more blue, or it is not coming out in the pictures.

Also, I would love to hear more about your background. The Human Skumgrod in your Genrailz retinue is a nice touch. Very 'Ere we go!

[firestorm40k]

Keep up the good work spreading the word about Epic. It's a shame that you need two of your own armies so you can play. However, I think it is fairly common in most non-GW wargames.

Eh? Epic is and always has been very much a GW game (even if they act like they've forgotten this most of the time... )

[The Laughing God]

Even though I don't play epic I'm watching this log because specialist games are always Awesome! And Epic would be my favorite out of all of them.

You have put a lot of effort in to this I can see, most epci armies are just drybrushed, yours have a lot of detail for such small models.

Do you have a size comparison from epic to 40k?

Great Job so far, keep it up!

-The Laughing God-

[scrubout]

Awesome orangesm! This will make good Epic batreps, eh?

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the completion of your leviathan.

-scrubout

[Crube]

Looking good... I always wanted to paint my Epic Orkies, but there were always just too many of them...

I may have to return to Epic thinking about it....hmmm

Keep the updates coming.

[orangesm]

First some responses to the multitude of post I have gotten.

Sorry Easy E, at the moment the information at the beginning is the extent of the background. I come up with some of it as I write it here. I have a basic background written for the region of space that all of my armies (40k, Epic, AI, and 1 BFG fleet) are operating in. The Aurelias Cluster has the possibility of everyone there – with Chaos on the defense!

I have considered trying to come up with a ‘in-depth’ dynamic crusade system for the region. It would involve having all players choose a system/planet to conduct a campaign in. BFG games are fought to open up systems to attacking players. Multiple Mighty Empires style campaigns have to be fought to actually conquer a planet with different scales being worth more. For example if a strictly 40k campaign is fought it is worth 1, while a E:A is equal 2 or 3 because it has more troops involved, adding AI to either gives a point or something like that. But that first requires a combined arms Mighty Empires campaign rules set.

Scrubout, I may get some Epic Batreps done, hopefully after I run some intro games for people. One of the downsides to playing Epic is that players are not readily available.

Thus, “The Laughing God”, you should at least give the game a try especially since trying it is free – go to www.specialist-games.com/epic/rulebook.asp and download 1.0 and then www.specialist-games.com/epic/playera.asp and download the Epic Training Scenario Counters. If you are still not sure – read my article in Firebase.

And here is the Scale comparison – that is a standard GW Space Marine.

Size Comparison


Da Titean (a Gargant)


Da Titean (again)

So I need to prime the Speed Freaks and make that order!

Thanks for all the responses - it is great encouragement. Also as few replies as I get I do get a lot of views.

[The Laughing God]

Thanks for the link,


Wow, like I said before you have awesome detail on the models that are that small. Great Job,

I'm starting AI soon, and thought I might put some epic planes with them since they are a bit cheaper.

I do enjoy seeing epic though, and I thought your epic article was great in FireBase.

-The Laughing God-