As mentioned in the last two posts, I managed to get a great deal of stuff painted in one weekend – this was partly due to good preparation but also because I have started using the ‘Slapchop‘ method of painting some of the new units I have been building. This allows the completion of units in super-fast times (two hours for a ten model unit…) or getting additional things done quickly while you work on larger projects.

This was the case for my new Blood Bowl team, the Orcs of Da Goff Fumpas, completed while working on the Primarchs…

I have a soft spot for Orcs in Blood Bowl, as I have some idea of just how vicious they can be. I have been using them for a good long while on the Blood Bowl II video game, and the Goff Fumpas are painted in the same way as my team there.

Why do I like the Orcs? Well, when they are just starting out as a novice team, they are as useless as all the others, but once they get a decent amount of experience under their belts, you can seamlessly switch between playing them as bruisers, capable of just grinding the opposing team into the Astrogranite, and something a bit more… subtle.

There are three components that make an experienced Orc team good, the legs of a three-legged stool, if you will.

The first of these are your two Blitzers. Hang them on the flanks, either together or supported by Linemen, and they become your glamour boyz. These are the guys who will be earning the XP by the bucketload, breaking the opposing flank, scoring touchdowns and sacking ball carriers. Give them Mighty Blow early on and then you can start playing with a variety of skills – Tackle, Strip Ball, Guard, and when they start getting characteristic increases (Strength, Movement and Agility are the winners), they start becoming true Star Players.

The third leg is the single Thrower, the guy who will support your Blitzers and add a degree of subtlety to your play – if you have a skilled (that bit is very important!) Thrower, Orcs can use a very credible passing game.

For the Thrower, you will be wanting to stack all the passing-based skills on him, as well as Nerves of Steel, for those times when he runs into the scrum to pick up a loose ball and chuck it to a Blitzer waiting within strike range of your opponent’s end zone. However, he should also be given Block fairly early on in his career, as he is also your back line. While every other Orc you have is as far forward as possible breaking the heads of opposing players, your Thrower is halfway to your back line, waiting to intercept any player who gets past your line and starts heading to your own end zone – your other Orcs are likely tied up in enemy tackle zones so it will be down to your Thrower to get the ball back into your hands!

Your Blockers make for a good centre line, and most of the time they will simply be holding the opposing team back, only getting the occasional punch in – and that is a problem for them, as it is very difficult getting a decent number of XP for your Blockers as your attention is going to be focussed on your Blitzers and Throwers. Even with a higher Strength, the lack of the Block skill will mean you may sometimes be reluctant to take a chance with your Blockers, as failure could see your line crumble.

However, once they start getting XP and earn the Block skill, things suddenly become interesting. Add Mighty Blow and Guard to each of them (this will take a long campaign!) and you will have a frontline that is truly formidable, one that even the Big Guys will be keen to avoid.

Finally, you have your Linemen, and these are the team members that you really will not care less about. You will quite happily chuck even a relatively experienced one in front of a Troll just to stop it rampaging towards someone more important. They wil gain XP at a faster rate than your Blockers, perhaps by accident, but it will not be until one really distinguishes himself (often by getting a characteristic increase) that you will really start paying attention to him. At that point he may become an honorary Blitzer and adopt their role instead.

Given that the Slapchop method is so quick, I also got round to finishing off the two Referees you get in the main box set. Again, supremely quick and easy to do (maybe 12-15 minutes work on each one?), but those black lines on their jackets are a pain when trying to get them done in super-quick time – they are all freehand, no Slapchopping that!

So, this weekend saw the completion of four Knights-Armiger, two Primarchs, a whole Blood Bowl team, and two Refs. Is that all I managed to get through?

Not a bit of it – there is one more unit I managed to polish off…