Titanium Dropship - RAL Phase Shifter "Zealot Pattern" & Octank

"Half a dozen RAL phases shifters, from critical mass games. painted with Vallejo paints to resemble a certain computer game faction"

And "an Octank from Ground Zero Games, converted with custom turret from Old Crow Miniatures  and various bitz from my bitz box, Vallejo paints and decals from Warlord Games" by Jebus. 

The Road to Gencon Part 2B - Praesentia Force Composition

By Maurice

Hello, Maurice here.  

I’m going to run the mysterious Praesentia for this project.  I hope I can hit all my deadlines, and I hope you enjoy following along. 

When I was deciding on a faction for Critical Mass, I knew I wanted something alien (I have so many human 15mm figs to paint for other games, I needed something different).  ARC Fleet was too human.  Protolenes were already taken, and Kaamdos just didn’t strike me.  That left the Praesentia. 

Hello, Maurice here.  I’m going to run the mysterious Praesentia for this project.  I hope I can hit all my deadlines, and I hope you enjoy following along. 

When I was deciding on a faction for Critical Mass, I knew I wanted something alien (I have so many human 15mm figs to paint for other games, I needed something different).  ARC Fleet was too human.  Protolenes were already taken, and Kaamdos just didn’t strike me.  That left the Praesentia. 

(Photo credit to CMG, hosted earlier on Dropship Horizon)

Now, the Praesentia are apparently an ancient race of ETs that use the ancient arts of The Way, The Path and The Balance in combat.  Of course their legions of subjugated robots help as well.  The Praesentia army is rather unique, with only a few actual Praesentia (pictured above), surrounded by various specialist robots and drones.  They also make extensive use of teleportation. 

So, where to start?  I initially picked up a Battleforce, which contains a Praesentia Command Trinary, the commanders of the force, two units of Enlightened robots with Trinary command, 3 Guardian drones and 3 Sentinel Drones.  Since then, I’ve added a unit of Phase Shifters (teleporting close-assault robots) and two of the heavy Hyperion Drones. 

Taking weapons add-ons, orbital strike, comms and other additional costs into account, that gives me something close to 1,500  points.  Now to get it painted and on the table!  

(Photo credit to CMG, hosted earlier on Dropship Horizon)

Now, the Praesentia are apparently an ancient race of ETs that use the ancient arts of The Way, The Path and The Balance in combat.  Of course their legions of subjugated robots help as well.  The Praesentia army is rather unique, with only a few actual Praesentia (pictured above), surrounded by various specialist robots and drones.  They also make extensive use of teleportation. 

So, where to start?  I initially picked up a Battleforce, which contains a Praesentia Command Trinary, the commanders of the force, two units of Enlightened robots with Trinary command, 3 Guardian drones and 3 Sentinel Drones.  Since then, I’ve added a unit of Phase Shifters (teleporting close-assault robots) and two of the heavy Hyperion Drones. 

Taking weapons add-ons, orbital strike, comms and other additional costs into account, that gives me something close to 1,500  points.  Now to get it painted and on the table!  

Critical Mass Games Discontinuing Buildings and Terrain This Month

As sad as I am to say it, but this is the last week we'll have the Critical Mass Games terrain available to us.

To make room for new products, CMG has decided to discontinue their terrain and buildings lines. They will remain available until January 31st, 2014. Until they are gone, they are offering Free shipping on all orders over £50.

The Road to Gencon 2014

PART 2A - KAAMADOS FORCE COMPOSITION

By Paul 

Greetings. My name is Paul, and I am the Kaamados player for this whole sheebang. I run the Metal Skirmish blog (http://metal-skirmish.blogspot.com) in my spare time when I am avoiding painting.

Many moons back, when I was getting into 15mm scifi, I picked up a couple Kaamados packs, because they looked cool. Fast forward to when Aaron was looking into getting the game. I figure, sure, I will pick up a copy, and grab a platoon deal, for if and when we actually get our toys on the table. (Again, I am mostly picking what I would like to play based on how it looks.) And then I tossed on a couple more packs when the ZAS kickstarter rolled through.

Now that I have read the rules, more or less, I may have lucked into something decent. Looking at an Agaamid platoon, backed by a few Draco Aganath Imperator battlesuits and some Naga troops. I'm hoping the Dragamaa Heavy Tank is as scary as it looks, and will keep enemy walkers busy. And I am leaning towards having the commander in a Gekotaa armored car, but I am still a little up in the air about that. Either way, should pack a solid punch with some staying power to help dominate the table.

As you see in the above picture, painting-wise I have my work cut out for me. I've never been into multiple figs per base, so this challenge will help keep my nose to the grindstone. I have most of a color scheme in mind, should be relatively easy to accomplish, just have to come up with some compelling details to make them really work on the battlefield. We'll see.

The Road to Gencon 2014

PART TWO - PROTOLENE FORCE COMPOSITION

By Aaron

Hi! I’m Aaron and I’ll be bringing you the glorious forces of the mighty Protolene Khanate Empire.

I’m planning on running a Scout force, so the natural starting part is the Scout Great Khan. This unit is the starting point for my force and requires me to field from three to five Scout units. I can take other Ghul-Khans (sub-commander) of either the Hunter, Predator or Scout class if I want some of those units (or more Scouts).

Protolene Scout Khans, Photo courtesy of Critical Mass Games, www.criticalmassgames.com

For this force, I’m going to stay Scout-pure. We haven’t played this game yet, so I don’t have a sense for how the different units will interact or what the strengths and weaknesses of each are.

Along with my Great Khan (45 points), I’ll add in two Scout Ayame with Communications modules (80 points each). These light mechs will help me generate extra communication points each round as well as provide some firepower. I could mount the Great Khan in an Ayame, but I’m going to leave him on-foot for this list.

Protolene Ayame with Communications Array, Photo courtesy of Critical Mass Games, www.criticalmassgames.com

The core of my force will be formed around two Warpacks of Scout infantry. These are 10-base strong units and will be the bulk of my infantry and anti-infantry firepower (220 points per warpack).

Protolene Scouts, Photo courtesy of Critical Mass Games, www.criticalmassgames.com

A Scout Sharp Shooter pack will compliment the main infantry body and provide some longer-range fire support. This is a 5-base strong unit (160 points).

Protolene Scout Sharp Shooters, Photo courtesy of Critical Mass Games, www.criticalmassgames.com

Light support will come in the form of three Scout Ayame walkers. These will provide close escort to the infantry to deal with other light vehicles the infantry encounter (195 points).

Protolene Scout Ayame, Photo courtesy of Critical Mass Games, www.criticalmassgames.com

For a heavy punch, I’ll take two  Scout Marrok medium walkers (240 points).

Protolene Scout Marrok, Photo courtesy of Critical Mass Games, www.criticalmassgames.com

Finally, for both transport to move the scouts a bit faster across the board and for heavy fire support, I’ll be bringing two Fenrir Heavy Assault Walkers. These behemoths will rule the battlefield and provide a strong focal point or distraction for enemy players (260 points).

Protolene Tamaska/Fenrir, Photo courtesy of Critical Mass Games, www.criticalmassgames.com

These units are how I envision this force progressing for Gencon. It should be fairly straight-forward but provide some options to deal with any situation. 

RAVAGE AND BLACKGUARD

NEW MECHA FROM CRITICAL MASS GAMES

By Eli

Critical Mass Games just released the two amazing new mecha for their ZAS Mercenaries. These models were born of a Kickstarter and come from the talented hand of John Bear Ross, 3D designer extraordinaire. The Ravanger and Blackguard both make wicked heavy support for any mech head's force.

They can be purchased - HERE.

Arc Fleet Ultra Recon

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On getting home from work I checked out last nights work. So, how do the Augmented Battle Suits look to fresh eyes this evening? Well, let's just say I'm basking in my self appointed awesomeness.

Onto other things......have you seen, Rebel Minis 15mm Modern Spy (item code: 15mm-modern-s)? Straight out of Splinter Cell n'est pas? Lovely miniature scuplted by Rod Campbell. The night vision goggles are particularly well executed.

I happened to be playing around with some CMG miniatures earlier to see if I could enhance enhance the number of poses using existing figures. 'Cut and shunts' mostly, you know, this torso on that pair of legs.

By accident I picked up an errant pack of Rebel Mini's Modern Spies which was lurking in the vicinity of my CMG Light Recon haul. Holding up the Rebel figs to the Light Recon I could see immediately that they were very close in height and build. Better still, the heads would easily match the Light Recon bodies.

What this means is that you can easily utilise the Rebel Modern Spies as Secret or Special Forces Operatives for your Arc Fleet figures.

Taking this idea further, I could easily swop several Recon Trooper heads for those from the Modern Spies, to give me 'Ultra' Stealth Recon Troopers.....

Cheers
Mark
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Monday Night Mini Paintfest

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12 CMG Augmented Battle Suits painted this evening. Real joy to paint too. Three coats of Citadel Thrakka Green wash followed by a light drybrush with Bolt Gun Metal to give that 'seasoned' look. Visors done in Citadel Don't Drop On Carpet Gold.

The camera flash 'burns' off the green wash in the photos and plays off the metal drybrushing. May need to wait till the weekend to take better photos in natural light. I'll have the 'Suits' based by then too. By the way, the Gauss rifles looked fantastic when left green and drybrushed with Bolt Gun Metal but didn't respond so well when painted black.

I'm toying with the idea of basing these 'Suits' individually on my standard sized round 'squad' bases to reflect their comparative power on the battlefield...but....based normally these will be great for Space Hulk type guncrawls.

Guncrawls win!

Cheers
Mark
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Critical Mass Games - Release Schedule

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Critical Mass Games have kindly given me the honour of announcing the planned schedule of releases for their new 15mm Sci Fi ranges. The first of these will be the Human Arc Fleet and the alien Protolene Khanate.

ARC FLEET

WAVE 1 20th August 2009

Arc Fleet Light Recon 4 Packs

AFLR 1-4

Arc Fleet Heavy Drop Troopers 4 Packs

AFHD 1-4

Arc Fleet Augmented Foot Troopers 2 Packs

AFAU 1-2

WAVE 2 21^st September 2009

Arc Fleet Rifle Infantry 8 Packs

AFSR 1-8

Arc Fleet Combat Walker 4 Variants

AFVH 1-4

WAVE 3 26^th October 2009

Arc Fleet Heavy Tank 3 Variants

AFVH 5-7

Arc Fleet Laser Defense Platform 1 Pack

PROTOLENE KHANATE

WAVE 4 23^rd November 2009

Protolene Khanate Predators

Contents TBD

Protolene Khanate Hunters

Contents TBD

Protolene Khanate Scouts

Contents TBD

Protolene Light Scout Walker 1 Pack

PROW 1

Packs sizes and prices will be confirmed, but in general you can expect 8 figures in a standard Arc Fleet pack consisting of 3 unique sculpts. Codes AFAU1 & AFAU2 have 6 figures per pack.

Arc Fleet APCs and new alien races are planned for the new year.

Craig from CMG has offered to share concept art, WIPs and photos of the final castings over the coming weeks and has granted permission for them to be published on Dropship Horizon.

Cheers
Mark
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