Acolyte Hybrids (Gene Stealer Cult)

 More dabblings in the Gene Stealer Cult today.  Both of my regular gaming buddies have jumped head-first into the new edition of Warhammer 40k.  The Crusade version of the game sounded appealing to me so I said I join them in this adventure.  Not to say the Vietnam project is on hold.  I finally got my next order of miniatures from Empress Minis and will start sorting them out soon.

Anyway, here's my first unit of Acolyte Hybrids.  These were pretty fun to paint.  Say what you will about Games-Workshop... but they do make some pretty cool miniatures.

Hope you all are enjoying a quiet and Covid-19 free week.

Acolyte Iconward

This is Eggar.  Eggar was a lonely lad lost the great mass of the Imperium.  But then Eggar met a new friend.  That friend introduced him to even more friends.  Now Eggar has all kinds of friends.  And a new religion.  And a new cause.  And a new arm too!  Come join Eggar and meet his friends!

Just a bit a dabbling in Warhammer 40k Genestealer Cult.  :)

More rifles...

So 3 more Marine Riflemen done, so now I have 8 total.  Got another order from Empress in the mail so flesh out my Rifle squads.  I have 4 NVA riflemen in progress which will complete my original order from Empress.

Here's the group shot of the marines.

More USMC from Empress Miniatures

Here are a few more USMC from Empress Miniatures.  I've come to face the fact that I'm a real lazy miniature photographer.  Sorry about the quality...

These really are some nice miniatures despite my lazy photography!  :)

USMC in Vietnam - the Start

Well, I was excited to get reunited with my long-time internet buddies on the Fields of Fire: Reloaded forum.  It's a forum dedicated to Vietnam wargaming.  I'd been a member for years before it suddenly fell apart.  I kept in touch with some of the guys, but lost contact with many.  Now they are all slowly filtering back in and it has reunited my interests in Vietnam gaming.  Sadly, I'd gotten rid of all my miniatures so I'm having to start over.

This is the start of some USMC from Empress Miniatures.  I think they look great so I bought a small batch to see if would be something I'd want to paint up and go with 28mm.  Well, I'm sold.  And have some more on the way.

I think I'll be focusing on The Hill Fights, also known as the First Battle of Khe Sanh.  These fights take place a year before the Siege of Khe Sanh.  Both were the focus of some pretty tough fighting against trained NVA forces.  Casualties were high on both sides.

The color palette for uniforms during Vietnam was a bit bland, so it's hard to really make all the different parts stand out.  Luckily the flak jackets had a tendency to fade and start turning a lighter green or tan.  Add the well known red dirt from the Khe Sanh hills and you can at least squeeze in some color.  Anyway, here's the start.

Atalanta, Agema's NCO & Spotbot

In my last post I hinted that this one would have one of my favorite snipers from Infinity.  So here's Atalanta and her handy little Spotbot.  Almost every game list I have made for Aleph, she has been included.  She's just too good to pass up!

She's not the most durable of all snipers in the game, especially since she doesn't have any type of active camouflage, making her an easier target.  Since she's so effective, she often becomes a priority target of my opponents.  Even if she dies early in the game though, it's not a total loss because my opponent wasted orders on killing her instead of mission objectives!

On the defensive side, she may not have a lot of protection, but on offensive she's quite the killer. She is equipped with a Multispectral Visor (Level 2), which makes all types of active camouflage less effective and best of all she can shoot targets under the cover of smoke.

One common tactic of Aleph players is to drop smoke on her and then let her start picking off targets, because she can see through the smoke and most of her targets can't shoot back!

The Spotbot is a handy little guy that improves her ballistic skill by +3.

Next figure is in progress, but it's a multiple figured base so might take a little longer. 

See you then!

Rod

Aleph High Functionary

I almost let February slip by without a post!  But actually, I'll wrap up with two.  Life has been a little busy lately, but I have squeezed in some paint time.  The hard part was just setting aside some time to take the pictures.  Luckily my wife was taking some shots of her bonsai trees, and took these pictures for me (the rest will be posted later this week.)

This is the Aleph High Functionary, an important representative and liaison for the Aleph artificial intelligence.  In game terms, he's an HVT (High Value Target).  In most game scenarios, you have to deploy a HVT for the other player to use as an objective.  So, not really part of your army, just an objective you have to protect from your opponent, while you go after his HVT and any of the other scenario objectives.

Hope you all are having a good week.  Next post later this week and I'll give ya a hint... it's my favorite sniper in the game!

Rod

My Trip to OKC (Oklahoma City)

On January the 19th I made a 3 hour drive up to Oklahoma City with some of my fellow Infinity players from the Dallas/Fort Worth area to play in an Infinity tournament called WarPanda's Wiley Wompus.  I didn't have any aspirations of winning since I'd only gotten to play one practice game with my new Aleph army before going to the tournament.  BUT, I had hoped to at least give a decent showing.  More on that later...

So, there were 16 total players and we each got to play 3 games.  As usual for Infinity, all 3 guys I played were really friendly folks and we had some fun competitive games.  I lost my first battle 6-2, faired a bit better in my second game losing it only by 2-1.  The last got off to an ugly start and I ended up losing 6-3, but I pretty much killed all his troops in revenge.  Sadly, if I'd had more opportunity to practice with my new army I think I could have done better.  By the last game I was really getting a feel for how to use my troops.

With the games tallied up at the end of the tournament, I found myself in LAST PLACE.  Yes... I'm not doing so well on the tournament scene this season.  3 tournaments, 3 last place finishes!!  Not good for my ego, but I think things will turn around with the new Aleph army.  The Oklahoma group has a tradition that the last place player gets to put their name on a wooden spoon and keep a baby seal hat until the next tournament were hopefully someone else will take the honor.  Why a baby seal hat you ask?  Think "clubbed like a baby seal" as a description of how the last place finisher feels.  Here's a picture of me, the clubbed baby seal.

Next up, our local group has a tournament on Feb 17th.  I haven't decided whether I'll participate yet.  I'm still feeling a bit beat-up on the tournament scene.  Will see though... that's a few weeks to recover.

Anyway, here's some pictures of some of the tables from the Oklahoma tournament.  I didn't take any of these pictures, but grabbed them from the Facebook posts after the tournament.

Penthesilea, Amazon With Attitude

Penthesilea, in Greek legend was an Amazon queen and a fierce warrior on the battlefield. A match for most men in combat, she was the daughter of Ares and the Amazonian queen Otrera.  Suffering from guilt, she sought to find an honorable death which lead her to participate in the Trojan War.  During the Trojan War she joined the side of Troy and finally met her death when facing Achilles.

175 years into the future, the AI Aleph is designing host bodies and giving them the personalities of the Greek heroes.  The most notable of these is Achilles.  His aggressive nature and lack of fear has caused him to be killed on the battle at an alarming rate.  Making a new body and transferring his memory to a new host gets to be time consuming and expensive. So, in an effort to give him better support [and surviveability] Aleph initiates Project "Amazon".  Penthesilea is the result.

Equipped with a Motorcycle, Penthesilea can quickly cover ground on the battlefield so she can easily come to the aide of team members like Achilles.  Or if she gets into the enemies backfield she can start taking down soft-targets very quickly.

I have to say I really like this model and looking forward to putting her in some games.  We'll see how she does pretty soon as I'll be headed up to Oklahoma City to participate in a tournament next Saturday.  Yes, I said a tournament.  I really dig this game!!

Cheers!
Rod

2018 to Infinity

HAPPY NEW YEAR FRIENDS!

I wish you all a healthy and happy 2018.  May your miniatures get painted to your satisfaction, your dice roll true, and all your games be full of fun.

This year I'm keeping it pretty simple on my goals for 2018.  I've really enjoyed my almost weekly games of Infinity with the local players so I plan to keep focusing on that.  I'm already signed up to go to a tournament the later part of this month.  I've never really been one to participate in tournaments, but the people who play Infinity are such friendly folks that I find these tournaments to be pretty enjoyable.

So, my goals for 2018 is pretty simple:

1. I accumulated quite a few Infinity figures last year and more during Christmas.  So, I want to have every figure I own plus any I purchase this year to be painted by the end of the year.
2. Work on some new techniques to paint all these Infinity figures to a higher standard than I currently paint.

And, that's it.

Now, while I plan to get all my Infinity figures painted, I do plan to sneak stuff in from some of my older neglected projects.  So, if you're not into Sci-Fi figures, hopefully I'll be throwing in some historical stuff to peak your interest.

Now, back to toys.  Here are the last figures from 2017 I have to show you.  These are remotes from the Aleph faction.

The Dakini Tactbot is a tactical remote that can be used in a variety of missions.  In games terms though, they are just your basic line troops.  Hence I kind of speed-painted him.  I don't plan to use these very much.

The Garuda Tactbot, however is designed for more immediate insertion/deployment.  They can be launched from aircraft and spaceships.  In game terms, on any of my active terms, I can bring him on to the board by airdrop.  Pick a location on the table, roll for a successful drop, or roll for drifting if I fail the roll.  Very handy for trying to slip a figure in behind the enemy or for trying to drop a troop on an objective.

My first figure of 2018 is almost finished thanks to having a 3 day weekend.  Think Amazon on a motorcycle.  :)

Thank you all for continuing to visit my blog and leaving comments.  It really is appreciated.

Rod

NAGAS Hacker

Continuing with the ALEPH starter box for Infinity, my next troop is a NAGA.  The NAGAS are specialist troops that are skilled in camouflage and infiltration.  They can be equipped for several tasks on your mission, either as Assault Hackers, Killer Hackers, Minelayers, or even Forward Observers.  This particular model is the hacker version.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Speaking of Christmas, Fred over at the Lead Reckoning blog wished folks to link his blog to theirs for Christmas.  He's already on my blog roll, so I just give a shout-out instead.  Go check him out.  He blogs almost daily and often has some pretty nifty ideas!

Rod

DEVA Functionary

Today we're returning to the armies of the Artificial Intelligence, ALEPH.  ALEPH has military grade bio-synthetic bodies that it can host part of the AI conscious.  These are known as DEVA functionaries.  These veteran troops can serve as the Lieutenant of your force for the mission.

Not the best armed units in your force, but they have sturdy bodies that can take a lot of damage.  DEVA functionaries also have an ability called, No Wound Incapacitation, meaning once they have taken enough damage to drop down to zero wounds, instead of going unconscious, they keep fighting.

Aleph - Asuras

A while back I started my second faction for Infinity.  I do enjoy playing Nomads, but I thought it would be nice to have a second faction for two reasons, 1) variety, so I can play something different from time to time, and 2) so I can give demo games at the store for someone who might be interested in trying out the game.  So who did I pick?  I decided to go with the Nomads bitter enemy, the Artificial Intelligence ALEPH.

From Corvus Belli's site:
ALEPH is the name of the single Artificial Intelligence that oversees the data network of the Human Sphere and most major international technological systems. The scope of its responsibilities is so broad that, in service of Humanity and under O-12 supervision, a whole organizational structure has been created around it to assist in its functions. To fulfill its mission, ALEPH oversees a sizable fraction of all human activity as a sort of friendly, inconspicuous Big Brother whose only goal seems to be aiding us. And yet ALEPH does have enemies. The Nomad Nation has a bitter hatred for the only legitimate AI, convinced that Humanity is but a hapless puppet furthering its secret agenda. And there is also the Evolved Intelligence, whose confrontations with ALEPH are clashes of titans on an epic scale.

I really do like the look of a lot of their figures, so that was a deciding factor as well.  One cool thing about Aleph is they have a whole portion of their army based on a Greek theme.  They have Achilles, Hector, Ajax, etc... for now I'll be working on some of the regular Aleph troops.

First off is the Asuras.  These elite heavy infantry and bio-engineered with highly absorbent sub-dermal armor plates.  They make good storm troops and can really take a lot of damage.  No matter how hot the fire, you don't have to worry about them retreating either.

Ha, it never fails that I find cat hairs in my pictures!

Rod

Miranda Ashcroft, Authorized Bounty Hunter

Hey Friends!

I know it's been a while since my last post.  So hopefully my return will bring you some enjoyable pictures of my latest work.  I do enjoy my job, but the commute is a real killer for my painting motivation.  It generally takes me 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to work and the same amount of time to come home, so most nights I just don't feel like painting much after a long day.  But, I have been painting and finally got around to taking some pictures.  So at least I have several blog posts coming up soon.

Today's post is a mercenary figure that can be used by a lot of factions in Infinity (the game).  Miranda is the typical rich girl gone bad, except her version of "bad" is becoming a bounty hunter and gun for hire.  Although cut-off from most of the family fortune, she still has enough tucked away to be able to afford some of the best equipment on the market.

Miranda Ashcroft, Authorized Bounty Hunter

She's a really cool figure and and a lot of fun to paint.  Unfortunately, she hasn't been that great for me in the game yet.  So far I manage to get her killed before she has had a chance to get into the action.  I'll keep trying though!

Rod

All Units Engage - Preview

My long-time internet buddy Thomas Robson of the Peabody Here! has been writing a set of skirmish rules called All Units Engage (AUE).  This originated from him and his regular gaming buddies basically wanting a simple set of rules to play an odd assortment of game types.  For example, Fallout 4, with it's post-apocalyptic setting.  So why bring this up?  WELL, because he's getting close to finally releasing the finished product and he's put a FREE introduction to the game on Wargame Vault.

For the record, he didn't ask me to advertise this for him, but since he made it known on his Facebook group and some other groups I decided to help out and spread the word in the Blog-o-sphere.  I jumped on as a play-tester a little while ago and been trying out some different features of the game. So far, they have become my "go to" rules for Sci-Fi gaming.  As for the setting I'd say they will work well from anything around WWII and later.

So Rod, what's it like?
Well, they are Skirmish rules.  I'd say a Beer & Pretzel style game, but with those really tasty pretzels with the spicy mustard.  The rules are fairly simple and don't require you spend a lot of time with your head in the charts.  BUT, all the ground work is there to add any complexity you need to spice up your game.

Number of units?
Eventually you'll get more options for building your forces, but with the intro scenario has 5 troops per side.  Later with the rules you'll be able to add squads and vehicles.

Figure size?
I think you could use them for any size figures (typically individually based), but the measurements are written with 28mm and 15mm in mind.  I have been playing these rules with 15mm.

Table size?
Well, for the scenario in the preview it recommends 3'x3'.  Obviously you'll be able to go larger than that.

Game play?
Why are you still reading my ramblings?  Just go try them yourself.  They're free after all...

A Fairy and Her Garden

My wife, Alla, has a green thumb.  She has an impressive collection of Japanese orchids and African Violets (some pretty rare).  She puts a lot of hard work into it and our house always has a variety of plants in bloom.  Here lately she decided she wanted to display some of her micro violets in a display as a fairy garden.  She found some stuff online and most of it arrived looking pretty good.  Only thing that was really lacking was the paint job on the fairy she ordered.  So, she asked me to repaint it.

BEFORE PICTURE:

Basically most of it was like someone just did an ink wash over the clay...

Here's how it turned out after the repaint (mostly).  I was still working on the raccoon when she stole it to take her pictures so it still looks a bit plain.  Anyway, I think you'll see that she did a really awesome job on putting together her Fairy Garden.  I'm quite proud!

Cheers!

Rod

On the Fringe of 15mm Space

Hi friends, once again I'm playing around with one of my old, but never forgotten projects.  These folks have been sitting in the lead pile for some time and I finally just said, "Let's paint!"  Well, really I painted and the little miniatures made giggling noises as I rubbed paint on them with the brush.

One of my plans for 15mm Sci-Fi was to have a setting on the fringe of space in a colony pretty far from everything modern.  Think of it has kind of a "Firefly" TV show setting.  The Wild West in space.  Luckily, Darkest Star Games has a lot of figures that match this setting with their "Colony 15" miniature line.  First up, I'm adding some more colonist...

And then there are the primitive inhabitants of the land.  Traded older equipment and weapons for access to their lands.  But sometimes, they don't like seeing what the colonists are doing... or perhaps jealousy and the need to grab more technology is their motivation?  Who knows?  But sometimes they get aggressive and attack weak gatherings of colonist.

Inspired by several projects people are doing with the French & Indian Wars, I took that same idea when I started painting the Zonii.  I thought bright and flashy colors with nothing to give them a real uniform look like the old North American Indians.  Here's how the Zonii warband turned out...

What's next?  I'm not sure.  I have enough 15mm to play some fun games now.  So either I'll add some more terrain for this game.  Maybe some more Infinity?  Whatever the case, I'm happy to say I will be starting a new job on September 5th.  So I have a few weeks of unemployment to actually get some painting done!

Cheers!
Rod