Of course, regular readers (shout out to Roger, John, Pete, IRO, Whittlesey & the crew!) will remember how it was Willy’s unfortunate encounter with my hungover foot that brought on this decision to paint an otherwise (almost) mint Heroquest set.. happy to say that Willy survived surgery involving superglue and rapid dry PVA and is almost 100%.. As with the Undead contingent, I wanted to follow the box art as closely as possible – because you just don’t mess with the classics – and went with the trick of priming white and prewashing with Vallejo Smokey Ink.
Flesh tones were a mix of craft skin tone & Vallejo Skin Wash, browns were Vallejo Filthy Brown washed with Brown Ink, metallics were Mithril Silver over a black base and washed with Smokey Ink.. and everything got a unifying drybrush of craft bone – basing was the same trick as the Undead, brown and yellow washes over a white base (nicely scuffed by all the collateral painting damage up to this point), followed by a thin black wash, black drybrush and then a drizzle of dust and flock to tie them to the theme of aged flagstones.
Got to say, they look a bit cackhanded next to the box art – the LIDL version of ‘Eavy Metal painting – but given the startling decline in my short range eyesight over the past six months (go on, make the jokes) that was probably to be expected, and I reckon they pass the “Two Feet Away” test without too much trouble – really looking forward to our first game with everyone painted up, that’s going to be some next level regression/nostalgia right there.. so till then, stay thrifty and Slavia Ukraini..
“the Chinese have come in, with both feet” – such was the announcment at UN headquarters during the Korean War when it was discovered that Chinese forces were fighting alongside the North Koreans as the UN troops pushed up the Korean peninsular.
And it seems appropriate here, as the Asian Communist Federation (led by China, but including Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos amongst others) are one of the “BigFour” factions in the world of Apocalypse: Earth – much as in the real world, the Chinese in the A:E timeline spent the early part of the centrury battling Japanese invasions and each other before uniting under Mao Tse-Tung who was initially an ally of (and supplied by) Holy Soviet Emperor Djugashvilli, aka Tsar Josef I, (or “Stalin” to his mates).
However, the A:E version of the “Sino-Soviet split” occurred a fair bit earlier – after the initail Soviet invasion of Europe began to bog down and the Atlantic Alliance started to get involved supporting the European League nations, Josef I came to realise that even the Holy Soviet Empire didn’t have infinite amounts of soldiers and hardware, and began pressuring Mao to come into the war on his side. This backfired spectacularly and led to an ill-fated Holy Soviet invasion of China, with a Soviet combined arms army coming to grief on the Mongolian steppes (land war in Asia bad, who saw that happening?) and the Chinese uniting the Asiatic nations around them into the Asian Communist Federation…
Of course, just because they loathe the Holy Soviet Empire doesn’t mean they’re exactly best mates with the decadent round-eye Westerners of the European League or the Atlantic Alliance either, especially as plenty of those nations have colonies on what they consider their territory.. and so the stage is set for a truly apocalyptic war of everyone against everyone else, where nation doesn’t speak peace unto nation but more “hurls brick at other nations’ and calls their mum a slag”..
So after the Atlantic Alliance, Holy Soviets and European League have all got tabletop representation, it was high time to sort out the Chinese, being as we have now ironed out the kinks in the “2nd edition” rulebook and just need to sort the graphics before recruiting some of y’all out there for playtesting….
Here’s what we started with – 3 boxes of Caesar WW2 Chinese infantry:
We’re going with the idea of the ACF forces being very skilled light infantry, almost to the point of the Atlantic Alliance, but lacking heavy equipment and relying on strength in numbers.. and before the bots come in to say that we’re stereotyping, bear in mind that A:E is set circa 1955-56ish in this alternate timeline, and therefore is pretty closely modelled on the way the actual Chinese & North Korean armies fought in real life during the Korean War. Of course, they probably didn’t have Shaolin-trained monk assassins, but hey – it’s a game.
The ACF are largely infantry but obviously with this number of bodies, that’s going to take a while, but the armour contingent (based on obsolescent Holy Soviet designs… so that would roughly equate to WW2/ late 40s real world) painted up really quickly – two diecast T-34s (I think – that gun looks a bit more impressive) and two diecast BTR-152 APCs picked up at The Works (kind of a discount/ dollar store place spcialinsing in art supplies & kids books & toys, for our non-UK friends). These were pre-painted, so all they needed was a few washes of Vallejo Brown & Smokey Inks and a drybrush of bone craft paint, before some heavy sponge chipping (practicing ideological purity of thought doesn’t leave much time for maintenance) and then hit them with some DIY textuire paste made from PVA, brown paint and sand, mixed up and applied with an old brush to represent mud.
And here they are, ready to defend the pure, TRUE vision of international communism/ socialism/ political correctness:
BTR 152sTrue equality means never having to wash your carT-34? Or IS-2? Or a bit of a bodge of both?
So, with regard to playtesting, who fancies having a crack? The more brains we get on this, the better the end result will be, as there’s inevitably going to be stuff that me and Dan failed to think of – if anyone out there in hobbyland fancies giving it a try, let us know and we’ll email a PDF over to you… and when we get this out and released, the idea is to send 20% of all proceeds to Ukraine, so drop us a line!
Smoke was rising over the dawn horizon as the tired sentry swigged the last of the water in his canteen. Squinting over iron sights, he peered down into the valley below and was suddenly snapped back to wakefulness.
The horde below seemed to have multiplied during the night. The Orca warhorde they had been tracking was far larger than intelligence had led them to believe – their brute warchiefs bellowed orders in their foul tongue, and although much of the camp was wreathed in smoke, the vibrations through the ground betrayed the steps of some far larger creature.
Could it really be true? The machinations of this new warchief that had been terrorising the northern quadrant had all been to summon some abomination from beyond the veil? The possibility was to hideous to contemplate, yet in the face of such terror, the Sky Marines stood tall…
The bushes rustled behind him. The next watch was arriving. He turned and hissed the password “Thunder?”
No answer.
“Thunder?” he hissed, irritated.
With inhuman swiftness, the chittering shadow leapt upon him, it’s blade cleaving a bloody arc through the man’s battledress.
“Die-die, man thing!” hissed the Ratman, wiping the Sky Marines’ blood on its’ cloak…
Well, it’s been a long time coming but we’ve finally managed to bring the Hyperian Warsmini-sort-of-campaign to a conclusion! And now the Orca horde of Warchief Ghazhrag The Bloody have established their status as Senior Baddies by beating seven shades out of Lord Ratticus’ Virum Nascii, we figured a suitable climax would be having them team up against the combined forces of humanity, the Ancien Regime and the Grand Alliance 301st Skyborne! And in doing so, we figured we could shake down the Hyperian Wars ruleset by seeing how it coped with a battle fo this scale and complexity…
Grab a beer, this is going to be a good one 😉
The stage is set… Baddies to the left, Goodies to the right – humanity’s Thin Red Line
Baddies new toys come out to play…Virum Nascii support teams deploy in the ruins, backed up by Slave archers.. note the Assassins infiltrated forwards into the fieldWitch Colonel Alecius Murphy sets up shop in the ruins – cavalry ready for a counterattack, the Ironclad and Steam Tank make ready to spill the blood of Beasts this day!The Dauntless and Whippets deploy out of sight behind the rocks with the intent of being one of the claws of a pincer movement, the oher being the Ancien Regime cavalry & armourAncien Regime grenadiers draw a bead on the Virum Nascii Assassins that have infiltrated forward into the cornfield…..this backfires as the Assassins achieve Frenzy and pile into their lines! Some opportunistic little buggers make a beeline for the Sky Marine squad deployed in the trees on the flank…Humies put up a stiff resistance, however – resulting in a few fallen Sky Marines and Grenadiers, but a completely annihilated regiment of Assassins!Virum Nascii superheavy leads the charge toward human linesVril lightning cannons purt the hurt on the Ironclad!Seeing the sheer mass of what’s heading their way, the Dauntless crew realise there’s no time for fancy strategy – we need every gun firing, and NOW!Virum Nascii losses are appalling, but they’re carving off casualties right and left off the human forces and the Orca haven’t even been touched yet!Orca are approaching in strength, but it’s the Virum Nascii paying the price.. so far!Carnage in the centre as the Virum Nascii and Ancien Regime super heavies take each other out!Orca magic takes a toll on the DauntlessThe first wave of the Beasts have been almost wiped out, but not without cost to the brave human defenders..You didn’t think that was IT, did you?!?“CONTACT FRONT!”More Orca crash into the Ancien Regime lines!The cavalry are hit in the flanks…..and annihilated!With the Orca rolling up the left flank, peppered by fire from the surviving Virum Nascii weapon teams, humanity prepares a last stand under the rocky outcropsWhippet squadron makes a desperate counterattack…The surviving Ancien Regime grenadiers decide to die gloriously!Sky Marines desperately try to stop the approaching Orca horde!Not entirely successfully…. this is how you earn combat pay, lads…“Enemy to our front, left and rear.. they can’t get away now!”Virum Nascii weapon teams bring down the Whippets!Listing, smoking, damaged by Virum Nascii special weapons and Orca magicks, the Dauntless makes her final stand… Vrilfire missiles and cannon take a vicious toll on the Beasts!The last remnants of the Orca horde try desperately to overhwelm the few remaining human defenders..The last grenadier falls and the Orca crash into the Sky Marine rifle squadHumanity not going down without a fight!And when the smoke clears…. the last handful of human soldiers and the surviving crew of the heavily damaged Dauntless look across a sea of bodies, human, greenskin and ratman..
Phew. Well, we did it – just. Humanity held this day, despite appalling casualties and some real nailbiter moments! In fairness to Dan, this was a “beta test” style game, working out some kinks and it’s easy to see that once we’ve got the Orca magick system a bit more fleshed out the shamans will be a LOT more effective.. plus we had to bodge the initiative system a bit to account for the different Strategy Ratings of the four sides.. but overall, immense fun was had, and the system got shaken down very thoroughly! The Beasts of Hyperia will be back, you’ll see…
Warchief Ghazrag surveyed the seen and grunted. His Waaagh God Avatar had been banished back to the ether, most of his ladz and practically all the Ratmen were slaughtered – it was time to pull back while he still had enough troops to rebuild.
He shrugged. It had been a laugh, after all. And you could always come back for anuvver go. “See you soon, ‘oomie”, he grunted and gestured for his lads to follow him from the battlefield…
Yes, GW have relaunched Epic. And honestly, I’m so pleased. I mean, I have no intention whatsoever of buying it, but just like I have absolutely no intention of buying a Lamborghini I still like to coo at one when it goes past.
We figured this would be likely to cause some political tensions (on our imaginary planet populated by imaginary races in an imaginary futue.. yes, we are ridiculous people) and this coincided by me acquiring some old 90’s White Dwarf PDFs from a Trove-style site (sadly defunct now :-/) and cooing at the luvverly luvverly teeny tiny Epic Blood Angels in issues 142 & 143… and getting a case of the “I wants”.
So to cool the tensions on Hazzard and to satisfy my inner child I set about stripping and repainting them, with the intent of re-creating the WD studio Blood Angels Army! And yes, I’m aware I had the same intent with the Epic Imperial Guard and Jim had the same with the Squats, but we are, as alluded to above, ridiculous people.
And so, to our ridiculous business we go.
I stripped the Warlord, Land Raiders and Rhinos in a Tupperware box using meths, THICK rubber gloves and an ancient toothbrush and once they were dry primed them white and pre-washed with thinned Vallejo Smokey Ink. Then, like their bigger cousins, they got thwo thin coats of Vallejo Hot Orange and a wash of Red Ink, before the metallic bits got based in black before drybrushing Vallejo Mithril Silver. Marine infantry got the same treatment, as did the Dreadnoughts and Robots I picked up off eBay.
So, pics so far then:
Assault detachment
Robot detachments
DreadnoughtsNo. 2 Battle Company (missing a stand, not sure where those lads have got too..)Land Raider companyNo. 9 Devastator CompanyThe full force so far
There’s a fair way to go yet, including quite a few scratchbuilt Rhinos, Vindicators and Thunderhawks but I have a fairly good idea how I’m going to do them – it’s going to be a real treat getting these lads on the tabletop!
Now, we have a slightly odd request to make to all of our friends out there in hobbyland…. we’ve been busy getting the rules for version 2.0 of Apocalypse: Earth together, and it’s looking pretty solid now. However, because we’ve both been playing the game so long we’re both a bit snow blind when it comes to writing them down and what we could really do with is a few folks who wouldn’t mind playing a few games with the rulebook as is and telling us what we’ve missed, which bits don’t make sense.. essentially helping us edit it. Obviously we’re not in a position to pay anyone but we’re happy to give everyone a mention and a good plug on the site wherever possible. So if you fancy having a crack, DM us and we’ll send you a PDF.. and you can tell us what bits we’ve stupidly missed out! All help will be appreciated, and as Future Force Warrior and Hyperian Wars are basically the same sets of ideas reskinned for sci-fi and fantasy respectively, it’s going to help all that along. The plan is that once launched, 20% of all proceeds will be going to the DEC Ukraine appeal, so hopefully we can make a difference there if only a small one.
As always, stay thrifty out there – Slavia Ukrainia – our thoughts stay with you
Nostalgia is a wonderful thing. Particularly in a decade that has chosen to define itself so far through plague and war.. it’s easy to think back to earlier times and believe it was all better.
It’s bollocks, of course. Back in the 80’s, we were al going to die of HIV and AIDS and there was an actual Soviet Union with thousands of guns, tanks and ICBMs trained on us over the Berlin Wall. But you know what we had?
This:
“I’ll use my broadsword”… well, quite.
Dan and I both have Heroquest as a major part of our childhood memories, and I’m willing to bet a fair few of you out there do too, and so it was with much wondermemnt that I unwarapped a promising looking box a birthday or two ago from my other half and discovered a magnificant specimen…
Box, cards, furniture, miniatures all present and correct. What a find. And everything in pretty much mint condition.
We’ve had a few games and although I had initially fancied painting it all up, I began to veer towards the “keeping it mint” point of view, as let’s be honest, this is a piece of history right here. So Brian the Barbarian, Eric the Elf, Dave the Dwarf and Willy the Wizard undertook their first few quests au naturel. However, my hand was forced somewhat after I made the mistake of leaving a game out on the floor and the following morning the intrepid band of adventurers suffered their first casualty – not from Orcs or Goblins or the powers of Chaos but from my foot, as I trod on poor Willy and broke him in two.
Dan was pretty philosophical about it, needless to say – “They’re not mint anymore then. You might as well paint them.”. And he was right.
Thankfully Willy underwent surgery involving superglue and a bit of greenstuff and is now fully restored to health, but I took it as a sign! And first on the block were the Undead, as I figured I should get my eye in painting the easy stuff first.
These were a white prime and prewash with thinned Vallejo Smokey Ink – which I find is a phenomenally useful trick now I’m getting older and a bit Mr. Magoo – then craft tan, wash with brown ink and a couple of layers of drybrushing with tan and bone to bring out he details. Metallics were Vallejo Mithril Silver washed with Brown Ink to make them look weathered and beaten, and for the bases I went with the “leopard spot” technique of splodging yellow and brown on the base, before washing it all with thinned black baint and then drybrushing up. Final touches were a bit of flock and some Garage Floor Dust (TM) drizzled on the bases to make them look suitable ancient and dusty.
Skellingtons..Zombies…MummiesWith box art for comparison – stuck as close as I could to the originals here… you wouldn’t mess with the solo to “Stairway To Heaven” would you? So you don’t mess with these…
Willy, Brian, Eric & Dave are up next after their varnish is dry, then it’s on to the Orcs & Goblins and of course the furniture – and we’re both stupidly excited about giving this a go with everything painted, just to see the difference it makes! So we’ll be bringing you a battle report in the not-too-distant future… Meanwhile there’s something else brewing out in the shed, so stay tuned, stay thrifty and we’ll see you soon!
Cast your eye over these holiest of places. This, this, is where Humankind came to Hyperia so many centuries ago, fleeing the dying world and the ceaseless war. Here our prophet planted his flag and said “Today mankind stands reborn!”.
Many are those who have left to seek fortune elsewhere, to explore and conquer this world. Humanity - or those close enough to fit the genus – raises it’s flag on every island and continent on Hyperia. But here is where it all began. Here, on this, hallowed ground. Here the Ancien Regime was born, and in the unnumbered millienia of our history, here is where we have weathered every storm, beaten back every would-be destroyer, built our world anew. This is humanity’s rock on which all others will dash themselves.
Here we are with the fourth and (so far final) instalment of our Hyperian Wars escalation project, focusing on the Napoleonic-meets-Tolkien-meets-The Empire from Warhammer faction of humanity – the Ancien Regime! This massive, continent-spanning empire represents the numerically and geographically greatest of the various human societies, and its kings and nobles all claim (with varying degrees of legitimacy) to trace their lineage back to the First Leader who brought humanity from it’s dying home to escape a war they believed would consume humanity and end the world (wonder what he could be referring to…) – but they have also stagnated technologically and regressed into mysticism and Vril-worship to keep their creaking empire rolling.
These guys are actually seasoned veterans, having been featured in the blog when it was nought but a bairn, and came as a part of a massive 2012 Ebay haul… and it was while we wondering what the bloody hell to do with a bunch of Napoleonics and WW1 Brits that the concept of Apocalypse: Earth having a fantasy/steampunk/ VSF cousin, and featured in the very first test game back in 2016… and in that game, you may notice the Mk. 1 Dauntless – rather less refined than it’s successor – and a superheavy steam tank called the Ironclad.
Which having got 90% ready, then sat unfinished until September 2023. Of course. And it was during The Summer Of Tidying that we decided to get the Ancien Regime faction properly finished and tarted up. The Ironclad (which began life as a papercraft from Landships II, the Holt Steam Wheel Tank in 1/48 so suitably imposing for 1/72) got a new paint job (matching the repainted A7V Steam Tank) and because it looked pretty undergunned as was, I strapped a massive howitzer onto the back made from a defunct pen to ensure the lads had some sort of parity with the horrors that Hyperia has to offer.
So, pics:
The Ironclad Lives!Went heavy with the sponge chipping as I figured this old girl would have seen some action..Flags, as is de riguer in all Hyperian militariesOverhead shot of the massive Bombard howitzer, giving a welcome indirect fire capabilityThe lads formed up on on parade..Big Brother and Little Brother at the backWill it be enough to hold back the Beasts?
And so right now, the Ancien Regime stands (reluctantly) shoulder to shoulder with the Skyborne 301st in facing down the beasts of the Virum Nascii and the Orca in the shed as our slow burning Hyperian Wars campaign comes to a climax! So that’s what you can look forward to in the next few weeks 😉
Meantime, stay safe, thrifty and Slavia Ukrainia – we’ll see you soon
Betcha thought I’d forgotten about these lads, didn’t you 😉
OK, I’ll admit, we are no stranger to big red things here. But this particular one…
WAAAAAY back in the mists of time, when humble old COVID seemed like the apocalypse, I acquired a haul of Space Marines off eBay with the intent of creating the Blood Angels 3rd Company army from WD 139. And one of those vehicles – albeit not one that I think they ever got round to painting – was the Land Raider.
Now, a modern bog standard vanilla Land Raider kit will set you back… (checks GW website) £55. That’s almost a gallon of petrol. Bugger that.
Enter Paperhammer! This particular template was downloaded from In The Grim Cheapness STC Archive (a Mk 1, obvs), printed out onto paper and glued to cereal box cardboard. I followed the instructions as best I could fathom them (cheating a but with the smoke launchers and exhausts, going with copped up drinking straws for those), until we got to the sponson lascannons.. I had such plans for them, an ingenious double pivot system based around spare 25mm bases and cocktail sticks… But in the end, they failed to survive contact with the real world – so I went with Foam ex, detailed with cardboard squares, glued on kebab skewers and added card on the end of the barrels… and off to the shed for priming we went.
It begins…It continues…Application of nylon tulle to make grating.. NOT recommended without alcohol on standbyNow with tracks, guns & detailing – thanks Roger for the heavy bolterOG or bustCarbon neutral…?
Primed white (natch) prewash with Smokey ink and then covered the whole thing with Vallejo Hot Orange and washed with Red Ink, and a mix of craft red thinned with red ink and matte medium. Came out a little darker than the Rhinos in the end – as I’m too thick to have thought about keeping one of them on hand for reference – but pleasingly crimson nonetheless. And I can always give a wash to the Rhinos too.
Here you can see the grill – glued the tulle to the cardboard, then more card over the top, then painted the area black and drybrushed silver. It’s a pretty cool effect but I’m buggered if I’m doing it too many more times…
Got to admit, it took a while to get this put together but it’s made a great centrepiece for the lads and it’ll come in very handy when the Blood Angels eventually make their final assault on Orklahoma City! Til next time, stay thrifty and we’ll see you soon.
If you’ve been a regular subscriber to this blog, you’ve probably seen the on-again, off-again Hyperian Wars sort-of-campaign featuring Warchief Ghazhrag The Bloody’s attempts to acquire all manner of mysteriously sacred stones, and I’m sure the question that’s been uppermost in everyone’s minds is “just what does he want them for?”
I mean, it’s not like there’s anything else to be worrying about right now, is there?
Well, the time has come to reveal the terrifying truth… the Orca have summoned their War God! And here he is!
Yep, that’s the Hulk. Actually, I’ve kind of got Midwinter Minis to thank for this idea – Guy’s repurposing of his Hulk model made me realise that big, green and ANGRY = Orc/ Ork/ Orca, and so I acquired a Hulk of my own off eBay, a little converting (helmet, club), primed and based and here we are!
Greenstuff wrapped around a cocktail stick with granny grating spikes, old paint pot cut open and dotted with PVA blobs to be rivets as the helmet – base covered with Garage Floor Dust (TM) before priming!Paint scheme was the same as the rest of the horde, so no need to go into that again here.
For the second part of the project, I took inspiration from an ooooooooooooold White Dwarf WHFB report which featured an Orc Shaman on a War Wyvern… so I started with a T-Rex toy I picked up for a quid from a local charity shop.
Next, wings – these were cocktail sticks snapped in two and the joints sealed with superglue, and then I cut some wings out of paper and superglued them in place. Then, to make them more organic looking, I rolled a cylinder of greenstuff and smeared/ applied it to the structure.
Next up, priming – grey, dusted with white, and a thinned wash of Vallejo Smokey Ink, before painting. I started with a yellow base and then gradually layered up green with Army Painter Goblin Green and Green Tone ink washes. The cream parts were a craft bone washed with Vallejo flesh wash and then more bone stippled and drybrushed over the top, and I used the bone to pick out the teeth and claws before doing the eyes in red. Then out to the shed for basing and varnish, and that’s that done!
So, pics of Whaaagh-Ghazhrag in full:
Pretty impressive horde, eh? Those Skyborne won’t know what hit them! Stay tuned for our upcoming HW mega smackdown, and stay thrifty out there!
Can someone explain to me how the HELL it’s October?? I know it’s an age thing, but this is ridiculous – I’m still writing 22 on the end of dates…
Still, enough griping – October is Orktober, and we’ve been preparing! Let us begin by turning our attention to Da Black Ork Cav – I’ve gone for a bit of low hanging fruit as time has been something of an issue, and finished up the second battlewagon that I started last year (!) and a bit of extra terrain for Orklahoma City… wanna see? Course you do!
Classic RT/ 2nd Ed vibes right there, and it didn’t cost a penny!Engine compartment – got to be a hemi in there, right? No Net Zero pledges for da boyz…Ran put of lollipop sticks detailing the wheels so had to make do with cardboard strips…All set and ready for priming!Attempted a zenithal prime – white over grey… still not entirely sure of this yet! Dinosaur in the corner is Dan’s project, I’ll let him tell you about that 😉 Painting was otherwise the same as last year’s model
And now, let’s check out the terrain:
So what we have here is a multivitamin container, thin cardstock glued over the top, rivets added (PVA blobs added with cocktail stick). kebab skewer legs, lolly stick walls mounted on FoamEx base with texture sprinkled on to PVA painted onto the base..Nicely ramshackle, I think!Primed black and ready for paint!
OK, and now let’s take a look at the whole lot formed up and ready:
New arrival on the left hand side, next to Da Dread.. Orklahoma City HQ providing the backdrop!Water tower all painted up – ain’t she purrty?‘TEN-SHUN!! Da Black Ork Cav, ready to roll out…
So that’s #Orktober started, how are you all doing out there in hobbyland? Let us know! We’ll be back with more soon, so stay thrifty out there!
In this great coalition of nations, there are those amongst our populace who rail against the use of force, who would offer the hand of friendship to monstrosities such as the Orca or the Dead.. those who would see us lie down naked and supplicant in the face of the Virum Nascii. To those in our parliaments and cabinets who question the need for the forces we maintain, I would ask them to look a charging Orca in it’s hate-filled red eye and convince it of the justice of our cause. I would ask them how we should use “soft power” and “social justice programs” to defend against a murderous tide of Ratmen bent on destruction, death and enslavement. I would ask by what means of deterrence would we keep the Cousin Races of the Ee’la and Stoc’d from turning upon us. How we might keep in check the dogmatic religious zealots of the Ancien Regime kingdoms from upending our cherished democracies.
I would remind these people, as they sit in safety and comfort, pondering abstract matters of state.. I would remind them that they have that privilege only so long as rough men stand ready to deliver violence on their behalf. I would remind them that such privilege is bought solely with the blood and bravery of the Skyborne!
Back to our steampunk/fantasy world of Hyperia, and here we are looking at the newly reinforced detachment of the Grand Alliance faction – a loose coalition of floating cities and islands spread across the western hemisphere of Hyperia, bound together by mercantilist tradition and by far the most technologically advanced of the human factions, even if the more esoteric elements of Vril lie beyond their grasp.
Not bound to the rank & file regiment system of all the other powers, the Skyborne Infantry are all able to operate as skirmishers and with hefty firepower are able to punch well above their weight numerically, particularly given their “Mad Minute” special training, although when enemies can get in close in numbers, things get sticky quickly…
Lt. Caruthers leads the 301st forwardThe lads in parade order – the command section featuring Lt. Caruthers, his ADC, Tactical Identification Device (aka flag) Bearer, signaller (chap with 2 flags), mortar, Enchantment Denial Device crew and an Artificial…
Behind them are the grunts, 3 nine man rifle sections each commanded by a sergeant, and behind them is the heavy support – three FV1066 Whippets (Willie The Wimp, Winifred, Walter) and the Dauntless Redux (with her crew pictured in front of her).. there were a couple of casualty figures left over which I painted up as objective markers.Willie The Wimp leads the Whippet squadron forwardThe Dauntless ReduxCasualty figuresClose up of the command sectionArtificial – made from a couple of cocktail sticks and card.. close up of the Enchantment Denial Device crew, which in-game provides a degree of defence against magickal powers.The grunts – old hands may recognise these as Airfix British WW1 infantry
Not to give too much away, but there’s probably going to be an uptick in Hyperian Wars content over the next few weeks as the slow burn “campaign” comes to a head… Stay thrifty out there and see you soon!
Skinflint Games 