+ Epic Orks for Legions Imperialis +
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| + In the process of de-sprueing and cleaning up, post-primer. + |
+ The infantry sculpts are by Wake's Emporium, while the vehicles are by Bishok. All are awesome, and I think this is a great initiative by Rok: one of the biggest impediments to getting into Epic with a non-standard force is finding things that go together nicely, and knowing what a 'normal' force should look like. Being able to pick up a starter army breaks down that barrier. +
+ To further make it easier to get into things, I'm going to see what I can do with my Ork rules – part 1: [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] and part 2 – [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]to make sure that the army is useable straight out of the box. +
+++
+ What's inside? +
+ All 3D-printed in a flexible resin, Rok lists the contents as:
30 x Combat Lads, 30 x Shooting Lads, 10 x Heavy Weapons, 8 x Fancy Guns, 12 Heavy Armour, 30 x Rocket Lads, 4 x Battle Tanks, 6 x transport waons, 3 x trucks, 3 x flamer trucks, 3 x dragsters, 5 X Buggies, 7x HQs
+ Not noted here are the bases. The box comes with enough MDF bases for the force, which is another nice step to making things easy. +
+ Straight out of the box, you'll find the models still on 3D-print supports. If you've not handled 3D prints before, rest assured that this scaffolding comes away nice and easily. You can use clippers, a sharp knife or – in many cases – just gentle pressure. They may need a little clean-up to remove any lingering supports, and this can be done exactly as through removing flash from plastic or metal models. +
+ In this case, I decided to experiment with priming the infantry while still on the sprues. I cleared some of the supports, but left enough to securely hold the individual models on the sprue, saving me a stage of faffing about with regluing them to a sprue (as for my Epic Salamanders). +
+ One thing to note, which may be a positive or a negative depending on your point of view, is that the models are big. They are listed both as 8mm, and as LI compatible – but I think these slightly suffer from the nebulous scale used for Legions Imperialis. While it's not going to be particularly noticeable on the tabletop, these models are taller and burlier than the new plastic GW Space Marines, and roughly twice the size of old Epic orks. If it helps visualise things, a while back I posted some pictures of the same sculpts from another seller on Etsy [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], which did have the inegrated bases. The Rok versions are as tall as those, including the puddle bases. +
+ The good side of this is that all the lovely detail in the sculpts (and they are fantastically characterful) is visible, and it will undoubtedly make painting a bit more pleasurable. +
+ The downside is twofold – it reduces cross-compatibility with other ranges, such as Troublemaker Games' awesome Skinner models, available from Vanguard Miniatures. Secondly, it means that the bases are going to be very crowded. I wonder whether this is why Rok decided to go for bases slightly larger than the 25mm used for Legions Imperialis. +
+ I think overall I'd prefer the infantry to be a hint smaller – I've always thought of orks as broader but shorter than Space Marines, but as I say above, this is going to be a matter of taste. Having bulky models means that you can get away with having four or even three models to a base; and in any case a variety of sizes of orks is probably a good thing overall, but it's worth bearing in mind. +
+ Happily the tanks are, to my eye at least, perfect. The Battlewagon proxies are nigh-identical in length to an new Epic Land Raider, which tallies up with the 40k equivalents. +
+ They are substantially bigger than old Epic ork vehicles, but this is far less noticeable with ork tech than it is with Imperial STCs, so these models will go nicely in older armies, too. +
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+ Translating things into 40k-lingo +
+ Working out what proxies are meant to be is a fun challenge for a linguist – but it's another hurdle to actually getting into the game. To that end, here's my take on what the various pieces represent in terms of GW's Epic games. +
+ Infantry +
- 30 x Combat Lads – Fairly straightforward, these are boyz with sluggas and choppas.
- 30 x Shooting Lads – Likewise, these are boyz with shootas. You could mix and match them for generic Boyz stands or keep them distinct.
- 10 x Heavy Weapons – Orks with big shootas. These could be used in groups as dedicated Lootas, or scattered in to bulk up the number of Boyz stands.
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| + Waaagh! Shootas, sluggaz and big shootas. + |
- 8 x Fancy Guns – A couple of these are shown at the top of the page. These look like Flash Gitz to me, but you could equally use them to bulk out Lootas.
- 12 x Heavy Armour – No mistaking these for anything else: Mega-Nobz. Since they're so large, you're going to struggle to fit more than two on a base, so you could instead use them as regular Nobz, by putting one on a base alongside a couple of Boyz.
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| + Ded boss Nobz – as you can see, very large models indeed! + |
- 30 x Rocket Lads – Not, as I first guess, boyz with Rokkit launchas, but Stormboyz. One of the models is notably larger than the others, and will work well as a Kaptin.
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| + Stormboyz + |
- 7 x HQs – These are lovely models. There's a Warboss, Weirdboy, Banna wava and a couple of Mekboyz. While you could bundle them all onto a couple of bases to represent a Warboss or Warlord, I'd suggest keeping the Warboss and banna wava together as a Warboss, and have the others alongside some spare boyz or Meganobz to serve as 'normal' Nobz.
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| Six of the leaders – one seems to have wandered off during priming, presumably to give the boyz a kicking. |
+ When I come to basing these models, I'll give a full rundown of what I've used, and how I suggest you assemble the box to tally up to the playtesting rules for orks in Legions Imperialis – you can find them in the files section of the +Death of a Rubricist+ Facebook group. +
+ Vehicles +
- 4 x Battle Tanks – These are large vehicles, roughly the size of new plastic Spartans. I suggest you use them as superheavies. While you could use them as the specific classic Epic Gibletgrindas or Skullhammas, I'd encourage their use as the catch-all Killfortresses, which are the modern equivalents. The rules for these allow for the variations shown. I'd suggest that (clockwise from top left), these could be Killfortresses with Supa-lobba, Quad Deffguns, Supa-kannon and Boom Gun respectively.
+ Alternatively, if you want to reserve superheavies for something really big, then you could use these simply as Gunwagons. If you want to use the specific units from older Epic editions, then I suggest the following, clockwise from top left again: Braincrusha, Bonebreaka, Braincrusha and Lungbursta. +
- 6 x Transport wagons – These could be used as Battlewagons with the turrets left off, or Gunwagons with the turrets in place.
- 3 x Trucks – Just visible in the background in the pict-capture above, these are slightly smaller than the Battlewagon proxies also shown, but I think they justify themselves as Battlewagons. Doubly so if, as suggested, you use the bigger ones as Gunwagons.
- 3 x flamer trucks – I think it'd largely come down to whether you've got existing old Skorcha models, in which case these larger ones will work as Bowelburnas. Otherwise, as they're roughly the same size as the buggy proxies (see below), they'd be brill as Skorchas.
- 3 x dragsters – Drawing inspiration from the old mekboy dragstas/speedstas, I haven't got these drafted yet, but now there are models available, I'll prioritise them. In the meantime, I suggest you use them as additional buggies.
- 5 x Buggies – ...and speaking of which, these are, unsurprisingly, great as Warbuggies.
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+ Whether you're interested in playtesting, or just fancy having a look to pick it apart, please do feel free to check out the playtest rules for orks in Legions Imperialis here. +
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| Oi, ya git! Stop writin' and get paintin'! |
