The Rise of the OrcGres!!!

So after a wee bit of soul searching (searching for the apparent lack there of! I have taken a bit of a punt and return to warm fatty goodness of Ogres! Reason being that I really miss the ogres and the fun I had playing with them, being a bit less stressful to play really has its benefits when all you want to do is have fun! Looking back on it, the ogres were really a great fun army to use and its something I feel the Orcs/Lizards lack! All that said I do love Da Orcz and Da LizOrcz so they shall not be sold off like some sub par supermarket reduced deli left overs. Really since I have invested so much time in this army (more than double the painting time of the Ogres so far) I don't envisage selling them for a long time. This is pretty nice and it means I have loads of different units, some with cross over, to use in all 3 (4 if you count using them as beastmen which is very feasible too! Minotaurs = Ogres!). Not saying that I will use them all as such in tournaments but I will certainly use them like this for friendly games! 

So how to amalgamate them into the Orc fold? Drawing inspiration from Johnny Hasting's Beastman Ogres showed me that I could make some pretty easy cross overs gaming wise so here's my wee attempt at doing the same with Orcs!

• Basic Ogres/Guts/Characters: Ogre Bull Models with Black Orc Helmets and weapons painted with green skin.
• Maneaters: Trolls!!! (Got a wee unit of 8 already painted!)
• Mournfang: Goblin Wolf chariots(Got 6 already painted!)
• Stonehorn/Thundertusk: Araknarock Spider with Ogre and Black Orc Riders (would be nice to have this for the Orcs too!!!)
• Sabretusks: Boar Boyz!
• Gnoblars: Goblins!
• Ironblaster: Ironblaster with Ogre rider converted as above!

Seems dead easy! The best thing about the orcs was that I really much preferred painting green skin over ogre flesh so that's a big bonus and I think I only need buy a few bits and bobs to make a 2400pt army. In principal using left overs from my Orcs and Ogres I think I can make a decent 3000pt for around £150 so thats pretty awesome! Could also use the new OrcGres as more trolls in my OnG army so big with there!

I reckon all I need to buy is one Battalion, 1 box of lead belchers, an Araknarock, a Slaughtermaster and Tyrant/BSB.

Here's my first draft, all round tournament army using the above principal:

Slaughtermaster: Armour Of Destiny; Crown Of Command; Dragonbane Gem; Level 4 Wizard; great weapon.

Bruiser: Talisman Of Preservation; Iron Curse Icon; great weapon; heavy armour; battle standard; Lookout Gnoblar.

8 Ironguts: Gutlord; Bellower; standard bearer; Look-out Gnoblar; Standard Of Discipline.
3 Ogres: Bellower; additional hand weapons.
3 Ogres: Bellower; additional hand weapons.

8 Leadbelchers: Bellower.
3 Mournfang Cavalry: Bellower; heavy armour; ironfists.
3 Mournfang Cavalry: Bellower; heavy armour; ironfists.

Stonehorn: harpoon launcher.
Ironblaster

2,399 points

Army is really simple and pretty all round in my opinion so I think it will work quite well and be fun to use! Its got a bit of everything and fights and smashes pretty well! Also I think it will look pretty cool on the table so that's a bonus! Right, Crunch time and silly deadline.......... I think Im gonna try and have this ready for the Falkirk Free For all at the end of February!!! Daft I know......buuuuut its actually not that much to paint. In physical time spent a black orc takes almost as long as an ogre took me so from that point of view I might be able to do this! (3 Months (Moving will ruin this lol) and counting lol)

To paint:

Slaughtermaster (1 Day)

BsB (2 Day)

Bulls (3 Days)

Ironguts (10 Days)

Mournfang (Done!!!)

Araknarock (4 Days)

Lead Belchers (4 Days)

Ironblaster (2 Days)

Total Required: 26 Days Painting

I think if I aim to Order and assemble everything by the end of December I should be ok? Worst case scenario I can paint 5 models and use the orcs!!!

Am I a mad man?!?!

Longer term just to expand the army to silly proportions I will be buying:

60 Savage Orcs (Dual purposing as Gor and Saurus)
2 Ancient Stegs (Scrap Launchers and Razorgor Chariots)
2 Giants (Ghorgons/Cygors)
1 Carnasaur(well just cuz!)

I think this will bring my army up to something daft like 6000pts in an OnG, Lizard and Beastman army and about 3500pts in Ogres. I think all said and done that's a pretty efficient use of models and means I hopefully will never get bored of the armies lol! 

As always let me know what you think guys, any input or feed back is much appreciated!