"GW Orc Boar Boyz, another peculiar boxed set" Topic

Just finished two units of Orc Boar Boyz from Warhammer 7th/8th Edition. I made both boxes of 5 models each into one larger unit of 10 models with three command models.

Some peculiar things about this kit. This 5-man boxed cavalry regiment is not designed to have additional expansion ranks added behind or in front of it. The design of the kit assumes that you will ONLY be using them in a single rank of 5 models, there is no consideration for additional models, except if you add to them to that same single rank.

Proof of this is that GW provides two boar poses: legs extended, and legs contracted. For a single rank this is not an issue. But for more than one rank it simply prevents additional ranks.

I realized that the only way to make a multi-rank unit out of these models is to already have several boxed sets all at once and then position ALL the boars on their bases first, some further forward on their bases, and some centered.

Even then not everything ranked up properly, a lot of prying apart of components and re-gluing had to be done. One thing that I could never figure out was how to use the shields as provided. I had to cut off many of the extra bits hanging off the shields so they would rank up.

As much as I love GW, I am now remembering just how user-UNfriendly some of these boxes regiments were for creating wargaming units. Ideally you really have to resort to numbering them under the bases so that you know the order they can be formed up in. Some GW units you can assemble in any pose and they will more or less rank up, and you can place models anywhere in a formation. Not so with these models, the margin of error is way too small.

These models convinced me that GW must sometimes photoshop the photos of their finished units they show on their box covers. They show Boar Boyz side by side ranked up in ways that I KNOW don't rank up in reality, yet in the photo they do!

Pics:

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Maybe they (GW) already had aging sick ma in mind?

With one piece metal (and plastic) arms and shields they are sculpted tighter as they don't need to be moved around. I have seen lots of pics (in WD?) of units with gaps between the ranks, or off set. Not a new thing. Still annoying.

Nice formation you have going there.

GW has had this problem all along. The white plastic dwarves from the mid-80s had this same problem. If you put them facing forward, they are too wide to be ranked up right next to each other. Same thing with most of their berserkers.

I don't know about the dwarves, but many early 90s (late 80s?) figs came from their boxed games. Like the beastmen, I remember Paul Sawyer writing that he didn't use them in his tale of four gamers beastman army because they walked like crabs (He could have just cut off the slotta and turned them around, or use bases with horizontal slots, academic now) also seemed silly at the time to have plastic grunts that were actually elites (the models had halberds, like the elite beastigor, unlike the grunt gors), this was because they came from the warhammer quest boxed game, like so many others (Plastic snotlings and swarms, goblins, orcs, skaven. I am not sure about other plastics, but it may be the same thing, there were a few board games released and maximizing the use of the molds was smart.

Gorka morka is another case, for 40k though with orcs and trucks and half tracks.

Necromunda terrain plastics got reused a lot.

Mordheim skaven and empire troops ended up as new grunt units in their respective armies. I suspect a few of the same issues here, as they were all 20mm bases and made for a skirmish game, though interchangeable with other regiment boxes.

And, of course, space hulk 2nd ed with terminators and genestealers.

Space crusade and others I am not sure about.

Chaos cavalry NEVER seemed to rank up right.
Old metal Boar Boys (that came 4 to a box with the smaller plastic boars) never ranked up right either.

Well, the game (or, at least, the models) did start with round bases, so I guess it suffered from its skirmish start. But by the 90s there was no excuse, they should have been better thought out.

So, basically, Age of Sigmar's switch to round bases was a long-overdue change.

A lot of GW cavalry models don't rank. Like Silver Helms, or 5th Bretonnian knights. I haven't tried double ranking Ellyrian Reavers yet, but I guess I can try. Also Cold One Knights were a pain to rank…

Damon.

I know exactly how you feel. This is how I got around the difficulty in ranking those miniatures when using ten figure units.

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Yes getting things to rank up can be a major pain at times.

Like with the High Elf Archers from over two decades ago I had to put half of them on the right side of the slot base and the other half onto the let side of the base (turn the base 180 degrees).

I have an unit of Orks where every single Ork in the unit is numbered since that is the only way they will rank up.

Brian,

That a great job there.

Yeah, basically the figures got bigger but the bases didn't. All basic elves being on tiny 20mm square bases didn't help, I had the same issue with High Elf Archers that Mithmee did (and the same solution lol).