The Big Biters

I'm hoping to keep adding photos and other updates to this as I go, but for starters, here's the fluff:

The Big Biters are  an interesting tribe for a number of reasons. Not least is the fact that, while they follow the nomadic pattern of their kin, they do not consume everything they encounter. Instead, the big biters spare the lives of some of the victims of their rampaging. Tame Gnoblars herd and coral these victims, feeding them just enough to keep them on their feet and marching.

The Big Biters are famed for the prodigious sizes of their mouths and pride themselves on being able to consume their victims in as few bites as possible. The tribe was founded by Gruth Rockhand, an ogre so huge that legend has it he could swallow a human in one mighty gulp. In fact Gruth met his demise when he choked to death on a particularly long limbed wood elf during an eating competition, but that is another story.

Every year the Big Biters return to the Great Maw and here the reason for their seeming mercy is revealed. When they arrive a reasonably safe distance from their god, the tribes Butcher chooses the Slaughtermaster who has been the most vicious and destructive during their year long travels. This lucky 'chosen one' then challenges the tribes Tyrant to an eating competition. The victims are divided equally (literally, should there prove to be an odd number) between the two combatants. Between sunrise and sunset, they eat as many victims as they can, in as few bites as they can manage. The winner is declared the tribes leader for that nomadic year, while the loser is, not surprisingly, consumed by his brothers. Where the result is disputed, the result is fought out in the traditional way. Two engorged and sluggish combatants, vomiting in an attempt to lighten the load, never fails to raise a gut laugh from the tribe.

This does of course mean that the tribes butcher is an even more hugely influential figure than in other tribes. It could be argued that, as they do not compete in this way and gladly receive tasty gifts from ambitious Slaughtermasters, that they are the true power of the tribe.

Fantastic story! You have a knack as a lore maker

Looking forward to more!

~ConOgre

Thanks man, never done anything like this, so I appreciate that!

Hmmm, can't post my pics from today - too big! Can't change them to under 200kb on my I-pad - any ideas anyone?

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I will take better pics tomorrow, but some early work in progress!

Odd, I posted on this last night and it's not here.....must be the IT boffins where I work trying to prevent me from accessing the OS.

So, what I had said was; I love the fluff to your army. Having a good story on which to base your build is great and it always gives you a reference point to go back to and help re-focus attention if you get lost in a sea of models (and I do frequently).

Nice to see a picture up now, it will be very interesting to see this army slowly build up into a force to be reckoned with.

Great work.

G_H

Thanks again for the feedback. Bulls and Ironguts now done and ready for basing.

We have a store campaign coming up. One of the things we decided to do was to build a giant - this is mine! Hope I can get the thing to stand up 

I like how you made the proportions work better on this model

Pics on their way!

Played my first game with Ogres today, against a mono-Slaanesh army. We're doing a Summer Albion campaign and I was way too focused on smashing things to hold any objectives, so it was a narrow loss. I was really impressed, especially as 6bulls and 6 iron guts chewed through a character loaded 50 strong daemonette horde! I'm liking our lore as well as I prefer to buff my units in combat.

Really fun start!

The night was silent and still. A yellowed moon rode sullenly on a blanket of thin cloud. Gruth Rockhand, belly full but far from satisfied, stared out at the forest and this brooding bulk of the Mountains beyond it. Something had called out not five minutes ago and now Gruth waited, tensely. Then it came again, a guttural rasping howl, the like of which he had never heard before. Gruth knew the sounds of the mountain creatures intimately, yet this was new. Something was stirring in the forest.

Suddenly, there came the answering cries of giants, more than one by the sounds of things. The trees shook and bent as two mighty forces moved towards one another. Calling out to a group of his Big Biters who stood nearby, also listening, Gruth mounted his stonehorn and lumbered in the direction from which an enormous crashing and roaring was now emanating. Even at this distance, even in the gloom of the evening, the ogres watched open mouthed as trees and enormous boulders were propelled above the canopy. They raced on.

Emerging in a clearing, the ogres were met by the sight of a creature they had never seen, locked in an almighty combat with two giants. As they watched, the creature felled one with a huge blow from its bloodied fist, then turning to the other, it took the giant's head in its hands and twisted it from its neck, showering itself and the entire clearing in gore. Gruth was smitten. As the creature proceeded to pound the last giant to mush between its feet, he and his ogres leapt upon its back and wrestled the exhausted creature to the ground. Ten ogres had left the camp that night, yet only Gruth and two others returned.

The legend of the Dread Horn was born...

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Some WIP. I'm not the best painter in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but ogres are fun!

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A great background story for the army! Love it!

The WIP pics are looking great, and I can't wait to see them finished. Keep up the good work!

And that Giant is EPIC! Amazing work mate!

- Loran

Thanks Loran. This is only the 2nd army I've painted, so I still have a lot to learn, especially about skin! My first army was DE, and they're a mess in places 

I dropped my Slaughtermaster, which is why he has green stuff on his sword 

I'm going to set a target of having them all painted and based in 2 weeks time.

Tidied the garage today in exchange for a couple of hours painting time. I was really depressed about how their skin was looking, but thin layers seems to have worked better - who knew? 

Looking good there, and I have to say that this is often the way it goes; just when you think this is not going well I am going to jack it in....suddenly it starts to come together!

These guys are looking great so stick with it. I can't wait to see you do the bases for these guys this will really give them a "holistic" feel. (that should be whole-istic).

keep up the great work.

G_H

Damn! That banner is huge!
I didn't realize how big it was until the whole army pic. The model on it's own didn't really do the model justice. Great work on that. Can't wait to see it painted!

- Loran

Not updated for a while - these are almost done 

As it's the first army I've painted, I think they're OK - they look fine on the table, but there's still a lot of sloppy brush work to sort out 

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Amazing game today - 6000 pts of allied Ogres & Dwarves faced down 6000 Daemons, Empire & Skaven. Wish I could write up a detailed bat rep, but there was waaaaay too much going on!

Ended with a comprehensive Ogres & Dwarves victory - helped in no small part by the 5 '9s' their casters rolled on the mis-cast table!

Amazing game today - 6000 pts of allied Ogres & Dwarves faced down 6000 Daemons, Empire & Skaven. Wish I could write up a detailed bat rep, but there was waaaaay too much going on!

Ended with a comprehensive Ogres & Dwarves victory - helped in no small part by the 5 '9s' their casters rolled on the mis-cast table!

Wow thats one massive game!  Glad you had fun!  Large games like that are stuff of legends. 

Kind regards Zolas.

Yeah, it was a real laugh - fun opponents as well, which helps. My wife had the Slaanesh/ DoC army and our games are usually played in an atmosphere of anger and bitterness  but this was fun.

Rubbish rainy day, so I made a start on my Butcher - lots of Greenstuff and some kit bashing 

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Sorry, neither of these pictures are great - I wanted my Butcher to be huge and fat - less muscular and more of a blubbery, waddling nightmare!

Getting there now, but I forgot to sand any fingerprints  it's all learning!

Good to hear you won your game and I love your butcher. Fingerprints or not he is still sculpted really well.

Thanks Goretooth - I'm learning a lot from people on here, it's an inspirational place because there is so much creativity going on!

Before I did my Giant, I hadn't used Greenstuff at all, but I really enjoy the process.

Thanks for the feedback my man 

No problem and if the minotaur is your giant you did a fantastic job sculpting it, I'm still a little new myself when it comes to sculpting. With practice though anyone can scuplt amazing things, so keep it up!

Bit of a problem here - I think my Butcher is too big  when I put him next to the Firebelly it was ok, but next to the Slaughtermaster I did early doors, he looks like a different species 

What do you all think? Would it be a better idea to make that SM just a unit champ and do another SM of similar size? Just leave it?

Quandry...

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How about make him a SM and you're original SM a butcher...

Personally I'd make your original SM a unit champ or bruiser as he has a gut plate which SM and butchers don't have according to the fluff.

Yeah, good idea, thanks. The original was one of the first models I made, & I hadn't read the fluff by then.

I do fancy making another one though...SM/Butcher is the next project then...

Sounds good, I look forward to seeing some more of your work!

Some really cool conversions and sculpts here! great work!

Thanks guys - the Slaughtermaster has been entered in our store's monthly comp I'll see how the big fella goes 

Great game today against a tough Empire army. The Big Biters snuck a close win by holding the river crossings 

Star performer was my Firebelly who made it into the guts of the enemy, despite withering cannon and gun fire, delivered the Hellheart and caused further devastation with his breath weapon 

Revelation for me: Sabretusks rock as war machine hunters    I'm on more familiar ground with them than Gnoblars due to my shameful Druchii past 

... due to my shameful Druchii past 

I'm watching you!
 
G_H

Ssshhhh! I don't want it common knowledge 

Funny old game tonight. My mate was supposed to bring his 2000pts of dwarves over, but turned up with his Hobbit case instead. He ended up playing one of my Dark Elf lists which he'd never used before, so it was bound to be interesting.

Ogres:

Slaughtermaster, LV 3 - glittering scales, dispel scroll, fencer's blades, iron curse icon, seed of re-birth

Bruiser, BSB, enchanted shield, crown of command, luckstone, HA, IF

Firebelly, LV1  Hellheart, GW

9 Ogres, bellower & standard, IF

6 Iron Guts, full command, standard of discipline, GW

4 Mournfang cav, HA, IF

4 Leadbelchers

3 Sabretusks

Ironblaster

Dark Elves:

LV 4 Supreme Sorceress, dispel scroll, Ring of Hotek

Death Hag, BSB, Witchbrew

Master on Dark Peg, Cloak of Twilight,

Tularis Dreadbringer, first Draich

30 Witch Elves, razor standard

30 Executioners, war banner

5 Dark Riders, FC, x-bows

5 Doomfire Warlocks, LV2

2 Bolt Throwers

Upshot was a crushing victory for the Biters - the luck of the dice was truly on my side, which never happens. Highlight was the Mournfang and Ogres making ridiculously long charges into the Witch Elves and finishing 30 in one round of combat. 12 went down to impact hits alone! The mournfang overran into the Master on the peg and did the same to him!

I felt pretty bad for him as nothing went his way. I think every magic phase was a bust for him - I didn't even bother with the Hellheart! He didn't make a single charge either.