Mantic Sci Fi Checkpoint

On the 2nd June I put together the Mantic terrain crate sci fi checkpoint - in the last couple of days I have painted it. 

My old Star Wars RPG character Jargo Khan is modelling the scale of these pieces.

Here we have electro-ducting as generally annoying linear obstacles (these appeared to be columns in the original set, but I couldn’t see how to use them with the stuff I had so they became these things). In the background we have a radar/radio dish and a big gun thing (this is only dry brushed as I am not sure what to do with it).

The military defensive line pieces - dry brushed and that’s about it. 

The watchtower/strong point. 

 The main building - with steps to the roof. 

These have come out rather well me thinks - I added a few transfers here and there. More importantly I have managed to squeeze them into the storage space ….

I do have an issue here - some more things will have to go….

The stuff for black undercoat ready to go ….

The last of the Starship Troopers (apart from the metal stuff), ripper, mantis and tankers bugs and some mobile infantry (I think that I will sell the last unopened pack I have of these and the wasp troopers (I don’t like the figures to be honest) and one of the 2 chicken hawk walkers). Also there are some 15mm Age of Reason - planning to become Saxons. And of course the last of the Blackstone Fortress miniatures. 

Should be a busy autumn of painting…

Morts

Space Marines - Assault Intercessors

The Assault Intercessor from the Recruit Edition of Warhammer 40k Starter starter set I pick up last year.  The starter set set was picked up for the figures - Necron and Space Marines for Kill Team. In a fit of activity I have managed to finished these within a year of purchase - must unusually for me!

Generally pretty happy with these (basically done, apart from a few tuffs on the bases). The extra ridge on the right shoulder pad caused the rams head to be a bit more difficult to paint. 

The Space Marine's also have a Lieutenant to lead them (if only I had the Commanders expansion). 

So my Space Marines now have 5 squads and a leader - so possibly a combat patrol sized force (I am not sure if they should have some fast attack or dreadnought) - although I am thinking of selling my copy of the 40k Core Book as there is too fluff in there - would consider the smaller version of the book as a replacement. I am planning to have a go with these in Xenos Rampant.

As I picked up the Pariah Nexus I have the data sheets for all the marines I have (except the hellblasters!). I plan to have add an assault intercessors to my marine Kill Team.

Now talking of Kill Team, there is a new edition coming out at the end of August, and I was planning to get a copy, as it had some interesting new mechanics and wasn't just a skirmish version of the 40k (although that isn't necessarily a bad thing). The new version uses Fire Teams to make up the Kill Team - The Fire Teams seem to have to be of one type of trooper - so the Ad Mech needing 2 Fire Teams  could have a Skitarii Ranger Fire Team, and a Vanguard Fire Team or any combination of Skitarii or Sicarians. Unfortunately the rules for the space marines mean that they only get one Fire Team, but no longer can this be a mix of Reivers, Intercessors etc. - It could be all Reivers or all Intercessor or all Assault Intercessors. Not in my opinion a nice team mixing up elite troops .... Well you probably can when the new special set with new rules comes out in the future for the various factions. 

So I have decided to pass on the new version of Kill Team at the present time.

I have also finish the Oathmark Human cavalry - Rangers.

These have already seen action in a solo game of  Dragon Rampant (where they were wiped out!).

Morts

Dragon Rampant - Solo

I had arranged with Steedo to come over and have a game - I had picked  Dragon Rampant, to give it another go and because I wanted to try it again as I have downloaded the Xenos Rampant version off the inter-web. I am thinking of Space Marines versus Arachnids - could be interesting. 

So as Steedo forgot I played a solo game to get the rules down. I just had standard units for both sides to make sure my brain wasn't overly taxed. The units were all the same number of figures as strength points.

The scenario was that the Red King has started summoning the forces of darkness to him - to this end the humans of Kal Khaos had collected some Black Orc mercenaries were on the march. The Red King's plans are unknown to the Humans of Solcity, however they sent out a force to stop the forces of darkness moving across their lands. The objectives were for the forces of darkness to force their way across the field.

Both forces had six units - 

Kal Khaos 

Elite Foot, Human  heavy foot (Offensive), Human heavy foot, Black Orcs - 2 units of Bellicose foot and 1 unit of wolf-riders (as heavy cavalry). 

Solcity 

Elite cavalry, Heavy cavalry, Light cavalry, Archers, 2 units of heavy infantry.

Initial positions.

The gradual (should that be glacial) advance of the forces of darkness.

There Black Orcs were putting in some effort. The human ranger cavalry getting in some skirmish and evade hits before being ridden down and destroyed by the wolf riders (the armour 1 for trying to evade and failing hurts!). Things aren't looking good for the forces of Solcity (their archers and knights not doing what is needed). 

The Black Orcs continue to push forward - eager mercenaries these boys. The forces of good try to block a wild charge on the knights by moving the spearmen forward. The rest of the forces of darkness also move forward. The Black Orcs do wild charge (which blocks the second unit of Black Orcs) - this forces the spearmen back .... 

This allows the Knights to charge into the Orcs as they regroup. Over on the other side of the battlefield the archers are getting a few hits on the human infantry in the centre and the heavy cavalry charge into a shield wall - ouch!

The Knights continue to charge the Black Orcs - forcing one unit to rout and the other to become battered! Although they are down to half strength at this point and looking ripe to be eliminated ...

The archers have forced the evil humans to rout as they continued to shoot away - the heavy cavalry had been continuing to put the evil human shield wall under pressure. The highlight for Kal Khaos' forces was the wolf-riders rallying from being battered!

The final field of battle - I called the game here after the wolf-riders failed an activation to charge the Knights.

The forces of darkness had been thwarted - they would have to try and get to the rendezvous with the Red King .....

Will I play another another game in this "campaign/narrative" only time will tell.

Dragon Rampant played more smoothly than the last time I played it - possibly because I was able to work through them without the pressure of telling other people what to do, as already stated to I kept it simple without any special rules or reduced model units. 

It was nice to get so many units to the table for the first time - 7 units had their first outing, as did the 2020 highlighted field of battle! 

 Morts

More Blackstone Fortress

With a little effort I have completed the painting of a few more inhabitants of the Blackstone Fortress. 

First up a couple of explorers.

The missionary zealot - Pious Vorne. 

Kroot tracker - Dahyak Grekh

Then a couple of the denizens - Rogue Psykers. 

Just varnish and bases to be done. 

Unfortunately I don’t have enough explorers to try’s game yet as it needs 4 to play. I have also finished all the miniatures I had assembled so far. But on the plus side there are only 6 (5 playable) explorers, 7 traitor guards and the 3 chaos space marines to go. 

I am hoping that even with distractions I should be able to complete the game before Christmas - and should be able to trial it possibly before the end of the summer …

Morts

A bit of painting done.

So for my fantasy human army some medium cavalry. 

Oathmark  human cavalry - with green stuff romanised helmets. An ok paint job - I did try grey undercoat and then some contrast cygor brown for the dark brown horses - I think it must be me because I didn’t get the effects I was wanting or hoping for, so had to wash and highlight as normal for me. I suppose I can’t be using it right.  

Also painted some of the battlefield objectives from mantic. 

There were a grey undercoat then some washes and a dry brush- nice and easy.

Might try using these sometime. 

Morts