"Mark my words, Rod-NEE, this time next year, we'll have a fleet of our own ships. The Governor himself will consult us, we'll swim in credits, the easy life. Now pass me that crate of Skwerm fruit, we need to off-load them to someone before they start exploding."
I've come to realisation that my collection of 15mm minis is severely lacking in diversity, being oh-so-white skinned. To rectify this failing on my part, I decided to ensure I paint up a wider variety of skin tones in future. These chap is one of the early efforts.
The human model is from Ion Age's Year Two Collection. The coat determined his background as, at first glance, it reminded me of Del Boy's iconic jacket from Only Fools and Horses. Once that came to mind, I needed a robot helper to represent the gormless Rodney. Digging through the pile, I found a suitably lanky droid carrying bags from the same company's Starport Staff set.
Derrick is sporting XV-88 on his coat with Screaming Skull trim. I feel it gives off the dodgy street trader look which I intended. The skin is the discontinued GW Terracotta which makes for a nice dark tone without losing detail. I painted and dropped a weapons case on the base to add a little more character. Overall, he's been very satisfying and the 1980s jacket is just icing on the cake.
The robot lackey, Rod-NEE was lathered in Iyanden Darksun, details touched up but I'm just not happy with the finish. My own painting is passable at best but something was off. I can't pin down what it is but it doesn't feel right. The sculpt is clean, the wheels for feet are a nice touch but regardless, the whole package just doesn't appeal to me.
Raised in the decrepit hab-blocks of a rusting industrial city, Marie, Louis and Antoinette were born into poverty and grew up in squalor. Their parents and their parents before them had known no other life as generations toiled producing pastries and cakes for their betters. It is likely that their lives would have followed the same path had they not unearthed some ancient vidslates detailing an episode in the history of Ancient Terra. They focused the discontent of the workers and founded the Liberty Front. Before long, the barricades rose up in Cake-Fabrication-Complex II-E. By the time the PDF brought them crashing down after a three month battle through the district, the three ringleaders had escaped off-planet with a cadre of hardened fighters.
Presenting Marie, Louis and Antoinette, the heart of the Liberation Front. They're all Ion Age minis. The women come from the Year Three Collection and the male figure is from the Precinct Adventurer set.
As soon as I saw the little rosette on Marie's beret, it screamed French Revolution. Inspired, I dug through the stash and found two more candidates. Louis had the beret and the raised fist so he was drafted. Antoinette is sporting a stolen suit of power armour but was chosen for her san-culotte style headgear. With that theme in mind, I had no choice but to go with a blue, white and red scheme.
The primary colours are Mephiston Red, Ceramite White and Teclis Blue which were used across all three models. The boots, equipment, assorted clothing and straps were painted with a selection of Tuskgor Fur and XV-88. The skin was Kislev Flesh with Abaddon Black, Averland Sunset and Dryad Bark for the hair. Finally the weapons and backpacks were Runefang Steel with Warpstone Glow to represent glowing "laser tube" bits. They came out far better than I had hoped.
Looking at the Ion Age site, I can see a few other models with berets. My next order should throw up a few more recruits for the Front.
The barracks are beginning to fill with trained troops so it's time to kick off the war. My first playtest used No Stars in Sight, a hard scifi platoon-based ruleset. The distinguishing feature, in my eyes, is that combat involves a lot more suppression than outright killing. Your activations are limited by your command rolls and number of leaders. I marked out a 2ft x 2ft area, dropped in some buildings and set up some lighting.
The engagement is a staple of the setting. A hapless squad of Imperial troopers run into a trio of battle-hardened Chaos Marines in some godforsaken town.
The forces of Chaos are represented by three Void Children, all armed with their standard infantry weapons. Just out of shot, their support weapons sulk, skulk and refuse to get involved. To reflect their status as elite soldiers, I gave them a buff to their command points and allowed them to move freely while out of command.
Representing the plucky defenders of Ursis Prime, our Armeddon Steel Legion platoon. It's a eight-strong platoon consisting of five troopers with autoguns, two heavy weapons and led by a commissar. As they are not genetically modified super-soldiers, they need to stay within 8" of their leader.
My first run through had both forces deploy opposite each other. The Imperials managed to set up a wide battle line, in good cover and the Chaos Marines found themselves hemmed in the centre from the very beginning. Any attempt to move to flank the Imperials was with a hail of fire and they were soon completely contained. By the end, their additional command points merely translated into more chances to expose themselves and get shot. The Imperial heavy weapons proved utterly vital to amassing enough firepower to bring the Marines down.
Now, a one-sided bloodbath is not ideal for the purposes of a good game but thinking on it, I felt it was a fair outcome considering the flaws in my positioning of the Void Children. Their mobility was their main advantage and without it, they were lost.
The second run through had the Imperials pre-deploy in defensive positions on their half of the board and the Chaos Marines moved on at a point of their choosing along their table edge. This was more satisfying as I felt it reflected their superior battle-sense. The poor commissar was soon bogged down monitoring the defense of the lower sector, directing fire and keeping his troopers on the line. He simply couldn't spare the command points to redeploy his troops in the upper sector. The Chaos forces managed to dislodge the defenders from their position, inflicting losses and the Imperials cut and ran. I adapted the rules on the fly to increase the lethality of the Chaos firepower as killing on 6s didn't feel right but that proved a little too powerful, a better compromise might been giving them additional kill dice.
Now, having reflected on the game, I think a larger table is called for and certainly, a single leader per side does not let the rules show themselves to best effect. That being said, the feel of the game seemed quite good and it would not be difficult to make minor adaptions to suit my own preferences.
As the old Irish saying goes: Tús maith, leath na h-oibre. It's definitely sparked a desire to push on with the project.
