Army building: a little bit of what you fancy does you good

Killa Kans, I love 'em. Homicidal scrapheaps piloted by angry space goblins who finally have a chance to hurt things bigger than them. I liked the old metal sculpts but the plastics are so much nicer, the hilariously ramshackle grotzooka being my favourite component. I also like the idea of taking mini-Dreadnoughts in packs of three, partly for the visual and partly because I'm not convinced Dreadnoughts work on their own in this edition, I need to experiment a bit more.

All this is the long way to saying there are two kinds of model I put in my armies: the things that must be there and the things I think are pretty. The “must” category comprises those units that I think, background-wise, an army cannot do without, which is usually the basic troop type. I can't conceive, even in this glorious age of unbound army lists, of a Space Marines army taking the field without at least one Tactical Squad or, in this case, an Ork army without at least a mob or two of Boyz.

And I really don't like Ork Boyz all that much. I'm planning on having at least forty of them because I don't think the army can work without them but they're not something I'm enthused by. That's what the rest of the army's for. The sculpts are functional, there's nothing overtly wrong with them they just bore me. Thankfully they look pretty easy to paint.

A big problem for me in the past when it comes to completing armies has been boredom. I think if I tried to work my way through those forty Boyz in one go I'd just lose interest in the army and drift off, disappointing Dave and rendering a lot of money wasted. So instead I'll be painting them five at a time alongside things I am interested in...

… like Killa Kans, like Flash Gits and their ridiculously ostentatious guns (which have more components on their own than there are in an entire Space Marine!), like Gretchin who are just funny, like Meganobz who are so much bigger and more imposing than I thought they'd be (still think they're a bit over-priced, though).

These are all things I've included because, as I say, I think they look cool. There are people who tell me this is all wrong and I should think about the meta, about how “competitive” the army I'm building is. For me, though, half the fun is finding that out on the battlefield and I really don't mind losing all that much. , I'd rather have fun and the same holds true for building and painting the army: I'd rather do it in a way I enjoy than in a way that will guarantee me victory.

Then again the Ork models I like the most are also some of the shootiest, most dakka-tastic units in the army. Plus Grots, I like the Grots because they're funny.