HD video of my ogryns and catachan special characters

First of all, i hope you all had a very merry christmas and that you will have lots of joy and good stuff in the new year to come!

I finally got my rotating plate from ebay and i decided to make a video to see how high i could get the resolution. I hope you all injoy it. Just double click on the picture to go to full screen on youtube.

Best wishes Ras

Nork Deddog

First of the ogryns done, Nork is here! I finished the last of the catachan special characters in the codex, Nork Deddog. Man i love painting ogryns and i cant wait to get started on the next 3. The details are big and groowy, the surfaces is huge compared to the other infantry models and the models themselves are rapidly becoming my favorite models. Oddly enough when i bought Nork i didn't like him much, I thought he was to small and he didn't really fit in at all with the newer models(aesthetic wise). 

However after trading the new ones away for the older ones. I stopped focusing on the lack of similarities between the old and new and found a new grown love for good old Nork. I decided to give the ogryns a different skin tone than the rest of the army to make them stand out more(starting with talarn flesh and highlight up from there instead of dwarf flesh). I am also not gonna give them the slightly yellowish tones as the rest of the catachan as i think it will make em look sick on such big surfaces.

Nork Deddog

The Imperial guard codex are full of cheap and good units, however it also has its fair share of point dumps. Sadly Nork is one of them. He is more expensive that Straken himself! Clicking in at 110 points.. Takes the space of the bodyguards, which clicks in at 30 points for two wounds and who have 3 attacks each(2 on base+1 for another cc weapon).

Nork at Straken side

Basically what it all comes down to is that you pay 80 points more for a ogryn in the Company command squad who have toughness 5(which is wasted cause he is a squad upgrade and not an independent character). You get feel no pain on Nork  himself, you get less attacks(4 instead of 6) with str 5 tho instead of str 3. He have two fun special abilities. One which will never be used cause you would never put a commisar in with Nork anyways(cause of the ability itself) and another one: d6 attacks str 6 if nork dies).

I will be using Nork from time to time when i will be playing fluffy games. He does make the company command squad with Straken better in close combat abd he is good for what he brings just very expensive(So perfect for fluffy games!).

Best wishes Ras

Company command squad Catachan style!

Finally my favorite unit in my Catachan army is done! I give you the Company command squad Catachan style. 

Straken with his two bodyguards

This command squad is designed to take the fight to the enemy and i will explain why. First, i took Straken for his kick ass abilities and his rock hard stats. In order to make sure his attacks have a high rate of actually killing i included a priest. Reroll all failed hits  on the charge and for some extra pain and vehicle destruction i gave him a eviscerator(counts as a powerfist with a +d6 for armor penetration). 

However by being a imperial guard Straken and his squad only have Initiative 3. So i needed something that would give them the staying power. I added a medic for that Feel no pain save, i upgraded carapace armor  which gives the whole squad a 4+ save(this is very important because the most common troop weapon aka the bolter have ap5) AND i included 2 bodyguards for extra wounds(these guys also comes with a baseline attack of 2 as an added bonus). 

Now if i just wanted a good CC unit i would have stopped here, but Straken is an officer and every IG command knows that orders are very important especially if you have a lot of footsloggers. So i upgrade a guardsmen with a vox in order to improve the chance of does orders
going through.

Then to Boost the low IG leadership i give one guardsman a regimental standard. This allows me to re roll any failed moral and pinning checks within 12 incs of the squad(very hand when i spend my 2-3 first turns trowing orders to my Heavy weapons, which also guaranties that most of my army is within range or close). Last thing to do is to upgrade the last guardsman with Close-combat weapons for that extra attack(this unit is designed to assault so i want all the attacks i can muster charging).

How to use it

I keep em back in the first 2-3 turns boosting 2 heavy weapons squads a turn with orders . His order to make their weapons twin linked is awesome for taking out mech or force a unit to reroll their coversaves! I then get into the thick of battle, like real catachans, knife first! This unit maybe not be a typical IG unit, but its hugely refreshing and fun to play since they dont expect IG to actually want to get into a close combat fight(except for ogryns, but that's a story for later).

Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken finally painted!

"Damn it, follow me. Ill show you how its done."

                                       Colonel Straken at battle of Modens Ridge.

That is basically how Straken have performed 5 outta 6 games. Straken have been the hammer i can count on and my trusted Catachans have been the anvil. Straken embodies the true spirit of a catachan soldier, Tough, reliable and hard hitting! Many a times have my opponents underestimated him(he is after all just a Imperial guard right?) Wrong! So far in my short amount of games Straken and his revenue have been responsible for killing(not run down, but actual killing) the following in close combat:

"Squad of guardians, a Wraithlord, full squad of assault terminators, full squad of assault marines with chaplain, several combat squads of marines, full squad of plague marines with chaos sorcerer and twice a landraider"  

Why is this? You may ask. Sometimes the dice favors you, but more times his stats favors you. Lets have a look.

Colonel Straken: WS 5 BS 4 S 6 T 4 W 3 I 3 A 3 Ld 9 Sv 3+

Wargear: Flak armor, plasma pistol, shotgun, close-combat weapon, frag grenades and refractor field.

Not normal stats for a IG for sure, but that's not it, lets have a look at his special rules.

Gung-ho

Colonel Straken and his command squad is fearless.

Senior Officer

Straken can issue up to two orders each turn. He have a command radius of 12 incs. Straken can use "Bring it down!", "Fire on my target!", "Get back into to the fight!" as well as "First rank fire!, second rank fire!", "Incoming!", and "Move! Move! Move!"

Cold steel and courage

Friendly units within 12 incs of Straken gains the furious charge and counter attack, this includes Straken and his command squad.

Man of Adamantium

Strakens close-combat attacks ignores armor saves and roll an additional d6 for armor penetration.

Fearless means Straken and his command squad will stick in there even if you get his by bad luck on the first turn of close-combat. His aura of "Cold steel and courage" means that even ordinary IG grunts can actually put a bit of hurt in close-combat. Just a added bonus mind you, it wont be something you should play after believing your IG now will rival other units in close-combat, but very handy to push your close-combat specialists.

But the real killer lies in the "Man of Adamantium". WS 5, str 6(7 if he charges) and no armor save alloved. 

Against marines: you need a 3 to hit, then a 2 to wound and then the marine die. Straken have 4 attacks(5 on the charge)! Terminators are the same and demoted to a puny +5 invulnerable save(+3(Thank you Zachary for correcting me) if they got storm shields).

Straken have a few weaknesses that you need to be aware of tho. Al tho Straken hits damn hard, he still only have initiative 3(4 on the charge). This means that alot of the times you hit after your opponent but before power-fists. Even tho Straken is more resilient both in armor save and toughness than a normal IG officer, he still only have toughness 4. This means that power-fists(or anything at strength 8 or above) will instant kill him if he fails his save. Luckily he cant be targeted out unless hes whole retinue is dead or you chose to do so yourself.

Ras signing out