My Grav-Tank Drone Thing

As the title says..

(actually it a Spectra Escort Gunship ).

I got this the other day. Once again it's a Beyond the Gates of Antares model. I've been getting good discount bargains on this range through Mighty Ape. It's a nice model and not too large. And, to me, that's a good thing because it's supposed to be an unmanned drone.

It was easy to assemble and pretty easy to paint. Once again I just used flat colours applied accurately (although I didn't really sweat over perfect detail).

One benefit of the model is that it had three weapon options and I used the other two to make a heavy weapons squad for my GCPS battlegroup.

So here are a couple of quick pics I took tonight and it should, everything going to plan, see it's first game this Saturday.

P.S. Now that I think of it, it needs a couple of decals.

My Second Game of Firefight

I got to use my new Asterian battlegroup in my second game of Warpath Firefight a couple of night back. They did okay and, apparently, won the game. I'm not sure how this happened but my opponent added up victory points at the end of the game and I won. I just thought we smashed each other until there were barely any troops left on the table.

So my guys met a group of Forge Fathers on a jungle themed board. Both of our forces were very shooty with a lot of heavy firepower on display. Subsequently, we blasted each other off the table at long distance.

I made the table during the week out of a bunch of bits and pieces. We have this wonderful resource here in the North/Eastern parts of Melbourne called The Reverse Art Truck. It's a big shed filled with a bunch of cast offs and bits and bobs from all over. Bit's of foam, plastic containers, pieces of wood, plastic doo-dads... etc.

I made a visit to TRAT and spent 5 dollars on some plastic food containers, used plastic thread spools and other bits. Add a bit of paint and I had some sci-fi looking terrain (I already had the jungle pieces). I also did the shipping containers during the week out of foamcore and corrugated card.


Somewhere in the cosmos. A derelict communications center in a jungle...

And some unexpected guests...

My brave Asterian's (robots without concepts of bravery or fear) advance fearlessly forward.

My anti-grav heavy weapon platforms did okay but with a single dice to shoot and a 50% chance to hit they are a bit fickle. They also only have Resistance 1 so they are a bit fragile. Fickle & Fragle, sounds like a dodgy law firm.

The Fuzz of War...

My Warden Cypher troops did well. They managed to rush forward under cover and then dash out at the right moment to pulverize some astro-dwarfs. Then they had the crap shot out of them.

One of the stars of my battlegroup the innocuous little Assassin Drone. It annihilated the astro-dwarf commander (I think his name was Big Ears) as well as that tin can monster behind him (it took a couple of turns). I'll be swapping this model out for something more suitable.

My other MVP was this bombard drone which sat behind cover and rained down indirect death on several astro-dwarf units including a second tin can monster.

The Forge Fathers certainly laid down a lot of destructive fire. Most of my Rifle Cypher units were pretty ineffective due to the dwarf's ability to suppress them and kill them with high powered AP weapons.

Warpath Firefight ~ GCPS Battle Group

Because I ended up with a bunch of Beyond the Gate of Antares troops I've decided to start a second battle group for Warpath Firefight. This time GCPS ~ Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere.

From what I gather (and what I'm going to do anyway), the GCPS is run by a bunch of mega-corporations. So I can't see any problem with doing a force that is the private army of one of these corporate titans.

So here's my first squad of marines using Beyond the Gates of Antares, Concord figures.

The photos are not the best (I really need a better camera) because the figures actually have a bluish sheen - Prussian blue dry brushed over black. I opted for very basic bases after trying an orange/brown stony base. Besides that, I'm a fan of simple bases if you can make them look effective. I might actually so some sort of colour coding on the bases for organizational purposes & to make them look a bit more sci-fi.

Anyhow, here's a couple of pics with their first bases and then with the new basic bases.

Meet The Supers

In the past couple of years I've played a few superhero games and I've enjoyed them. James at Nunawading Wargames Assoc. is the main driver of these game as it's his passion. The rules we use are SuperSystem by Four Colour Studios. They brought out the 4th edition of their rules not long back and I decided to get a copy to replace my 3rd edition. As a pdf these rules are not a major investment so I'm not so concerned about the idea of an upgrade (unlike some "New Editions" that cost $80 or $90+).

So, to celebrate my new purchase I created a new hero team (although they could be villains - I haven't decided yet).

First up is Red. She has high-grade metal faculties and therefore has a few psychic abilities like Telekinesis, Mind Attack and some sort of psychic force shield (I haven't worked all the detail yet). She also has a sword and a pistol with which she is reasonably proficient.

ICEBERG - He is big, slow, strong and durable. He can't move very fast and he can't charge into combat. But he does have the Entangle ability, which I envision like Mr Freeze's gun, that freezes folk in place so he can catch them and lay the smack down. He can also hurl icicles & has a very strong mental defence. My thinking is that his mind operates at such a slow, glacial pace that it's very difficult for others to comprehend and gives them a brain-freeze.

And last The Bog Dweller - An amphibious creature from the brown lagoon. He's fast and leapy with formidable claws and teeth. He also operates in water with equal ease. I'm not sure what else he can to at this stage but I'm working on it. I might give him a suitably archetypal Irish secret identity.

Nuff said!

Asterians for Firefight

As can be seen in my previous post, I started doing some Asterians for Warpath Firefight and I finished them yesterday. As you can see they are made from some Necrons that I got on the cheap and I also added several heavy weapons and the commander from the Beyond the Gates of Antares range.

All in all this has been a pretty easy little force to build. It comes to 1250 points and I'm keen to get them onto the table to see how they go.

One of the bonus things about using the Gates of Antares stuff is that I bought a few boxes of infantry troops for the heavy weapon drones. This has left me with a bunch of troops which I'll use to make a GCPS (Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere) force. These guys sort of equate to 40K Imperial Guard sort of thing. The difference being that they are pretty much operated by private mega-corporations.


I turned one of the Cypher Rifle units into Cypher Wardens (for close combat) by removing their shooter and replacing one hand with the modified tip of the the Necron weapons (lucky I didn't bin them!). The heavy weapon drones on the right are an indirect fire bombard and an anti tank thing. The tall one up the back is an Assassin Drone and the others are just heavy support blasters.

I like the commander. The Asterians are all remote robotic constructs and drones with The Overseer being the only living Asterian representative on the battlefield. This figure is tall - to my guess 54mm - and onother Gates of Antares figure. The little drone with it doesn't really represent anything but it looks good so I'll just use it to represent the figures' shields/comms etc.

I also have a gav-tank on the way to replace the Assassin Drone & I've left another 5 points to account for it. But I may just use it for my upcoming GCPS. Who knows?

My green skinned commander. Do Asterians have green skin?

My version of Cypher Wardens.

Something Different ~ Some Sci-Fi

I played a game of Warpath: Firefight a couple of weeks back that a friend, James, was showing at one of our club nights and I was surprised that I really liked it. I didn't expect to dislike it or anything but I was surprised by the way the game worked and found that I could see myself playing this game quite a bit.

I was given a pdf of the rules to look at and I've really been getting into it. The actual rule book will be available next month & I'll get that as soon as I can. I could just print off the pdf but I'd prefer to support the game by purchasing the actual rules.

However, I'm not so gallant when it comes to buying the game miniatures. The game I played was with a couple of armies made by James with a mix of figures from all over. Which is fine by me.

I got the chance to get a bunch of 40K Necrons at a bargain price from another guy at the club who is downsizing dramatically. $50 for 28 figures. Very cheap in GW terms. The figures are painted and based so I could use them as they are but... They're Necrons and they look like Necronny and they will always be identified as Necrons. So I had to change them.

Because I bought a bunch of cheap robots fate decided that I would make a Asterian force. They seem pretty good and they suit my idea of sci-fi. Robots and drones and such things with a single flesh & blood overseer commanding them about the place.

So I did some modification on the Necrons in order, as one chap put it: "to reduce the Necron silhouette." I like that turn of phrase. So here's my first little unit of Cyphers (as they are called) and this is how they came out:

My first idea (still too Necronny):

And after shortening their weapons (and reducing the Necron  silhouette).

By the way, I wanted them to look very plastic, as if they are a metal humanoid structures covered with plastic/synthetic cowlings.

I also got a cheap box of some other sci-fi dudes that had a couple of heavy weapon drones and I ordered a second box to get more. As it is, I've used the drones as they came out of the box and I think I'll use the dudes to make up a second faction later on.  The tall drone is made up from 40K Tau stuff.

So, there you have it. The start of my little sci-fi guys (well they're really robots).

1st Vermandois - WSS

My first post for a while and I'm back to getting my French for the War of Spanish Succession painted up and ready. I'm still going fairly slowly on these guys and interspersing their progress with smaller (& easier) projects.

These troops form the third battalion of Montmorency's Brigade at Blenheim - the 1st Vermandois. I only have one more battalion to do to complete the brigade and I hope to get them done in the next couple of weeks. Then it's on to some cavalry!

This is, again, a very nice looking battalion with a great colourful flag of red, yellow, purple and green quarters - Although you can't really see much of it in the pics. Once again these figures are from Ebor Miniatures. I love the finished look of these figures but I have to admit that I don't enjoy preparing them. They require far too much filing to get rid of mold lines and removal of excess metal from torn molds. But the end results are always nice.

You may have noticed, if you've looked at my other battalions, that I'm using a painting method that I believe brings out the best in historical big battalions. After undercoating the figure I paint in the flesh parts and then apply a flesh wash. The rest of the figure is painted in flat colours with no shading or washes.

Doing things this way means there is a need to be fairly accurate with the brush as mistakes can be pretty glaring. Having said that I don't go out of my way to make things perfect - Just fairly accurate. This method is great for big battalions as it really makes the figures stand out and gives the formed unit a great presence at a distance on the table-top. I used this style for my Napoleonic Prussians too.

P.S. - The background buildings and paved foreground are made from printed terrain.